Project Duration
2020-present
Location
San Quentin State Prison, Avenal State Prison, Mule Creek State
Prison, California
Background
People who are incarcerated live in often dehumanizing
conditions, lacking access to programs and opportunities for
self-enrichment and mental health benefits, work and life skills,
and connections to others. Those preparing to leave prison often
return to communities most directly impacted by environmental
injustice and disproportionate impacts of climate change. For
more than 20 years, the Insight Garden Program (IGP) has been
delivering a year-long environmental education curriculum through
which people who are incarcerated lead the design, creation, and
cultivation of in-prison permaculture gardens, develop emotional
and social skills, and prepare for reentry as empowered
environmental stewards. For three years, IGP and the UC Davis
Center for Community and Citizen Science (CCCS) have been
collaborating on the shared goal of facilitating citizen science
activities in prison gardens.
Our own experiences thus far show that people who live in prison
are interested in science and desire more opportunities for
science education. An early phase of this work established:
- Citizen science activities in prison gardens are feasible,
and have been met with enthusiasm on the part of IGP
participants.
- Citizen science activities fit well with IGP’s program:
facilitators welcome hands-on activities that deepen and widen
participant engagement with garden spaces, and connect to many
different parts of IGP curriculum.
- Longer-term engagement in citizen science, whereby
participants take charge of data collection over a longer period
of time is feasible, and could greatly expand the benefits of
these activities for participants.
- Expanding inquiry beyond pollinators, and to more prison
facilities, could facilitate rich exchange: among participants;
with scientists; with home communities.
Our long-term goal is to establish a first-of-its-kind California
program in which a statewide network of people in prisons
advances science that has real meaning and impact for the
participants themselves, and beyond prison walls for communities
and the environment. In this vision:
- Scientists would collaborate with incarcerated people to
conceive of and carry out science activities inside and outside
of prisons.
- Incarcerated people would build skills, knowledge, interests
and credentials that expand opportunities for them and their
communities.
Funders
UC Davis Public Interest Research Initiative
Partners
Insight Garden Program
