From a Prison Garden Sprouts Real Growth

A new program through Adams State University hires incarcerated professors to teach in prison bachelor’s programs, providing them training and income while giving more people access to education behind bars. Students report that they prefer learning from someone who understands their experiences and is available to connect with outside of formal classes.

Mountain View Correctional Facility in Maine has turned its food service into a farm-to-table experience, sourcing healthier, more appetizing meals from its own apple orchard and vegetable garden and from local farmers. Prison food is traditionally a "hidden punishment" of bland or inedible fare that has poor nutritional value. By eating locally, cooking from scratch, and training incarcerated people in horticulture and cooking skills, the prison is fostering an atmosphere that's healthier physiologically and psychologically.

The USA has one of the highest rates of incarceration, and reoffending is a likely outcome after prison. 'The Last Mile' and similar programs are providing inmates with the opportunity to learn marketable skills and earn degrees while in prison, and then find jobs once their sentence is finished, in order to decrease the likelihood of reoffending.

Five Keys Charter School, established in 2003, works in various California prisons to provide education and job training to inmates. Since its founding, Five Keys has awarded 684 high school diplomas to inmates in custody and 712 more to people who completed their coursework at a network of community sites scattered around San Francisco and Los Angeles.

A pastor in Blue Island, Illinois, closed his satellite campus church and turned it into a community service center. Named the Hope Center, it aims to address community needs through a garden, automotive garage, and technology services department. Each program has a director and volunteers who run workshops to teach community members new skills.

The Green City Force run by the New York City Housing Authority turns open urban spaces into gardens tended by young adults in the program. The force is meant to prepare members for careers in sustainable industries afterward. The members also educate locals, trade vegetables grown in the gardens for compost, and train in ecoliteracy.

At Utah State Prison, the New Visions Speech Club is teaching inmates public speaking. The club gives inmates the opportunity to practice communication and bolster their confidence – two skills that can help them in the long run. While there hasn’t been any evidence between the club and decreased recidivism, those that participate have said how its helped them express themselves in parole hearings and job interviews.

The University of Wyoming’s Pathways from Prison program uses federal Pell Grant money and private donations to fund college education for inmates. The program offers four-year degrees and aims to provide them with the skills, tools and knowledge to reenter society in a positive way. Studies show educational programs decrease recidivism rates by 14.8%, and those participating in the program say their self-worth and sense of hope have significantly increased.

California is taking a new approach to reducing recidivism, known as The California Model, by providing people who are incarcerated with rehabilitative and educational programming.

California is shifting to expand programs that help give incarcerated people the skills and knowledge they need to effectively transition back into society. Various re-entry programs for men and women across the state that connect people with education and job resources helped dropped recidivism rates from 44.6% to 41.9%, based on the state’s most recent data, and also cost taxpayers less than the average cost of incarceration.