Adding gardens to prisons may seem trite; prior to the 1970s, many prisons, including Alcatraz, had them. Then came an era when, as The Washington Post put it, “lock-’em-up-and-throw-away-the-key justice took hold.”  Gardens in prisons disappeared, along with their many profound, yet little-recognized, benefits.

Today some prison officials are recognizing the importance of rehabilitation. Most prisoners are released, but as it stands more than 60 percent will be sent back to prison after committing new crimes or violating parole. Could the simplistic act of adding gardens to prisons really help to change that?

Preliminary research in California prisons suggests that, among prisoners who participated in gardening programs, less than 10 percent returned to prison.⁶

Beth Waitkus, Director of the Insight Garden Program, which helps U.S. prisons establish gardens, told the Post, “The demand is huge… Prisons see the value of this. When you have to tend to a living thing, there’s a shift that happens in a person.”

And the prisoners aren’t the only ones who benefit. Some prison garden programs use their harvests to feed inmates, both saving money and adding to the quality and taste of the food. Some prison gardens donate food to low-income areas, allowing prisoners to give back to areas where many of them were raised. Others generate so much food that they’re even able to donate to local nursing homes and schools.

To read more of Dr. Joseph Mercola's article, please click here.