CCS Insight Garden Program

Citizen Science in Prisons

Overview

Project Duration

2020-present

Location

California State Prisons

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, Land Together (formerly the Insight Garden Program) 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. The UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science (CCCS) has been collaborating with Land Together on the shared goal of facilitating citizen science activities in prison gardens. Key milestones in this collaboration include:

New Phase: Launching the Science Inside project

With a new 3-year grant from the National Science Foundation, we and our partners are launching Science Inside: Naturalist Education and Participatory Environmental Science in Prison Gardens. The Science Inside project will pilot the California Naturalist program in prison gardens, and study the learning process. Check back for project updates in the months ahead.

Funders

UC Davis Public Interest Research Initiative, National Science Foundation, Individual Donors

Partners

Land Together, UC Environmental Stewards

PROJECT UPDATES:

Post

Project Update: Launching a prison-based California Naturalist certification course

First-of-its-kind program brings environmental education and rehabilitation together through an NSF-funded partnership.

The UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science has launched the first California Naturalist Certification course at the California Health Care Facility (CHCF) in Stockton, marking a significant milestone in an innovative National Science Foundation-funded research project exploring environmental stewardship, naturalist education, and community science within correctional settings.

Post Heidi Ballard Ryan Meyer Laci Gerhart

Training Naturalists Behind Prison Walls

Article by Kate Washington, UC Davis Magazine

A kestrel swoops to grab a smaller bird on the wing and eats it, right in front of a group of men in the garden at California Health Care Facility, or CHCF, a prison in Stockton, where the garden has become both a thriving ecosystem and a science classroom for people incarcerated there. As the feathers fly, UC Davis researcher Laci Gerhart pulls out a bird guide and shows the incarcerated men how to identify the bird by its size and coloration, noting that kestrels are North America’s smallest raptor and one of the few that are sexually dimorphic. 

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