Conference on Social and Ecological Infrastructure for Recidivism Reduction

While there has been a growing interest in policies, procedures or practices that promote public safety and reduce recidivism, local environmental initiatives are increasingly common in communities across the United States. In recent decades, corrections departments, community-based organizations, and educational institutions have brought these environmental and criminological fields of research, policy and practice together in innovative ways.

This work takes many forms, from institutional sustainability initiatives to community greening, therapeutic gardens, recycling programs, science courses, and green jobs training. Some practitioners have been at work for over a decade growing within the walls of state prisons, county jails, or youth detention centers. Others are building links from prison gardens to land-based careers on the outside, integrating college credits with food/agricultural courses, or working with families of incarcerated loved ones and communities impacted by incarceration.

For the first time, this national conference will bring together researchers, practitioners, community leaders, and policy makers who work at the intersection of correctional programs, community-based interventions and ecological sustainability.