Green Lessons in Gray Places: Environmental Education in Prisons

The power of education is profound, breaking barriers to economic opportunity and upward mobility while disrupting cycles of disadvantage, such as poverty, unemployment, and lack of opportunity. Without education, these cycles can persist across generations and communities. Simply put, education transforms lives. For example, every additional year of education a person acquires increases their future earnings by 10%, allowing them to secure stable housing, afford adequate nutrition, and invest in savings.

Education equips individuals with knowledge, skills, and confidence to navigate their social environments, solve problems, and contribute meaningfully to their communities. Whether through formal schooling, vocational training, or experiential learning, education opens pathways that might otherwise remain closed, offering tools for self-determination and the possibility of a better future.

In prisons, education is no less significant. In 2016, research organization RAND found that incarcerated individuals who participate in any type of educational program are up to 43% less likely to reoffend and return to prison. Prisons with college programs have fewer violent incidents, creating safer conditions for both incarcerated individuals and staff. Additionally, every dollar spent on prison education programs saves four to five dollars on the costs of incarceration, such as paying personnel and staffing, providing inmate healthcare, and carrying out facility operations and inmate services.

Among the approaches to prison education are environmental programs that harness the positive connection between humans and nature. Exposure to the natural environment reduces stress, alleviates depression, and enhances cognitive functioning. In correctional facilities, this exposure can take the form of interactions with plants and animals, exercising in yards with grass and trees, or even experiencing indirect contact through nature imagery or viewing nature through a window.

Environmental education programs mobilize the human-nature connection by providing contact with plants, soil, and outdoor environments that strengthen their sense of being part of the living world. In prisons, mental health challenges are prevalent; 43% of people in state prisons have been diagnosed with a mental disorder, such as major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, personality disorder, and/or post-traumatic stress disorder. Furthermore, 66% of people in federal prisons have reported not receiving any mental health care while incarcerated.

In light of this, environmental education programs are bringing green spaces, conservation work, and ecological learning into prisons, addressing both the mental health crisis behind bars and the pressing challenge of recidivism.

Programs That Heal People and the Planet

Environmental education initiatives have been found to empower participants, the institutions and organizations that serve them, and their local areas at the individual, organizational, and community levels. Programs across the U.S. are putting this principle into practice, bringing nature-based learning into correctional facilities with promising results.

For Jamala, his healing after 31 years behind bars (half of them spent in solitary confinement, an environment of sensory deprivation) came from an Insight Garden Program. Jamala attributes his reintroduction to nature through this weekly, two-hour class to be the foundation of his ability to address core issues in his life, such as addiction, anger, and gangs. This program taught him how to feel again after he lost the ability to connect with other human beings due to his time in solitary confinement. 

The Sustainability in Prisons Project, a partnership between The Evergreen State College and Washington State Department of Corrections, seeks to empower sustainable change by bringing nature, science, and environmental education into prisons. Through this project, correction centers have implemented programs ranging from beekeeping to turtle rehabilitation to prairie conservation. Additionally, since 2024, the project has awarded 1,326 college credits to 237 students through classes such as Foundations in Gardening, Foundations in Composting, and Environmental Workshops.

Prison-based environmental programs can reduce recidivism by addressing the psychological benefits of nature exposure and the employment opportunities created through green job training. For example, at Snake River Correctional Institute in Oregon, the Nature Imagery in Prisons Project found that inmates placed in solitary confinement who viewed nature films committed 26% fewer violent infractions than those without.

Additionally, environmental programs can create tangible pathways to employment and successful community reintegration. Through San Quentin State Prison’s Insight Prison Garden Program, inmates receive master gardener training from partner organization Planting Justice and are then offered relevant jobs, such as those in landscaping, upon release. These programs can also empower formerly incarcerated individuals through showing them how to address food insecurity in their communities by donating produce to food pantries and shelters. Participants in these programs also create productive green spaces by transforming vacant lots and neglected areas into thriving gardens and urban farms.

PULLQUOTE: [“I had a job to go to at Planting Justice when I came out; I’ve been able to totally transform my life because of the garden program.”] — Anthony Forrest, former participant in San Quentin’s Prison’s Insight Prison Garden Program

The impact of these programs also extends to daily prison operations. Prisons consume significant amounts of energy and resources, as well as produce considerable waste. For example, prisons typically use twice as much energy as office buildings and schools. Additionally, the average inmate uses between 120 and 149 gallons of water per day, and between 0.5 and 1.2 pounds of food waste are generated per inmate per day.

Environmentally focused practices such as reducing waste through composting and recycling programs, conserving energy through efficiency upgrades, and supporting sustainable food production through prisons gardens and horticulture training have been found to improve incarcerated persons’ health and reduce violence within facilities. 

Environmental education in prisons is not limited to the U.S. In Europe, Innovative Prison Systems promotes environmental-related skills, knowledge, and attitudes, as well as formal education and pathways to employment. In the U.K., the Greener Prisons Initiative at Her Majesty’s Prison Bristol aims to enhance ecological literacy, reduce food waste, and reconnect incarcerated individuals with the natural world through horticultural and educational programs. These programs reflect a shared recognition that connecting people with nature benefits individuals and societies everywhere.

Investing in Second Chances and Sustainability

The alignment of ecological responsibility with prisoner education can transform prisons into centers of positive change that benefit the environment, incarcerated persons, and society. The opportunity to expand these programs has never been greater, as growing awareness of both the climate crisis and the need for effective rehabilitation strategies converge. Partnerships between correctional institutions, environmental organizations, educational institutions, and community groups can expand environmental education programs across federal and state prisons, local jails, and youth correctional facilities. These collaborations generate significant benefits such as reduced recidivism rates, improved mental health outcomes, and improved employment skills.

The power of environmental education demonstrates that transformation is always possible and that healing the relationship between people and the planet benefits us all. Investment in these programs represents investments in second chances, healthier communities, restored ecosystems, and a more sustainable world.

Please consider donating to EARTHDAY.ORG to support our global advocacy and education efforts, which work to protect the planet and all who call it home. We recognize the importance of education in our Climate Education Coalition, which calls on countries to include climate education in their Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement. From prisons to classrooms to communities worldwide, environmental education builds the knowledge, skills, and hope needed to create a more just, resilient, and thriving world.

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