Since the 1990s, in this country, there has been an increased interest in green prisons. These prisons have instituted programs that are nature based and have guidance from trained professionals. The incarcerated people engage in gardening (both vegetables and flowers). Other horticultural pursuits could include climate-change classes, caring for animals, and learning about the environment. Some have even started roof gardening. Research has shown that being outdoors and involved in gardening improves both physical and cognitive health. It can lower stress levels and blood pressure and boost mood and general well-being. It can even decrease pain levels, anxiety, and depression. It has been shown that just having windows with a view of nature tends to decrease visits to the infirmary. Being exposed to nature also promotes a more cooperative behavior and increases self-esteem.

Vocational education prepares people for employment after release and teaches those who are released social skills such as how to work together as a team member. One of the more well-known examples is the greenhouse program at Riker’s Island on the East River in the Bronx. This facility is known as being one of the country’s most cruel and savage prisons. It is the most notorious prison in the country. Yet since the 1990s, the Horticultural Society of New York, with the assistance of the New York City Department of Correction, has worked to implement this program. It includes a two-and-a-half-acre garden where inmates plant and tend to the gardens. This is this country’s oldest and biggest prison garden. People who work in this garden are given skills that they can use once they are released, and the majority tend to stay out.

In San Quentin, they have the Land Together project (formerly called the Insight Garden Program). This includes the formerly incarcerated and inmates, who participate in a forty-eight-week curriculum, which includes four separate tenets: We Are All Connected, Gardening From the Ground Up, Tending Our Inner Gardens, and Turning Insights into Action.

Coyote Ridge Correctional Center, which is located in Connell, Washington has instituted many reforms to cut down on inmates reoffending. These programs include not only basic adult education but also post-secondary-degree programs. They have mental-health group therapy sessions as well as chemical dependency groups, which focus on drug abuse and dependency. There are dog training, alternatives to violence, and multiple family programs, including InsideOut Dads, Partners in Parenting, and community service programs. Staff members at Coyote Ridge are used as mentors and coaches to help inmates make a positive reentry to society.