International Journal of Prisoner HealthImpact of a nature-based intervention on incarcerated women
Barb Toews, Amy Wagenfeld, Julie Stevens,

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To cite this document:
Barb Toews, Amy Wagenfeld, Julie Stevens, (2018) "Impact of a nature-based intervention on incarcerated women",
International Journal of Prisoner Health, Vol. 14 Issue: 4, pp.232-243, https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPH-12-2017-0065
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Impact of a nature-based intervention
on incarcerated women

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Barb Toews, Amy Wagenfeld and Julie Stevens

Barb Toews is based at the
University of Washington
Tacoma, Tacoma, Washington,
USA.
Amy Wagenfeld is based at the
Department of Occupational
Therapy, Western Michigan
University, Grand Rapids,
Michigan, USA.
Julie Stevens is Professor at the
Department of LandscapeArchitecture, Iowa State
University, Ames, Iowa, USA.

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the impact of a short-term nature-based intervention
on the social-emotional well-being of women incarcerated on a mental health unit in a state prison.
Design/methodology/approach – This research used a mixed method approach with individual interviews,
a focus group and a visual analog scale (VAS).
Findings – Qualitative results found that women appreciated the planting party and the way the plants
improved the physical environment. Women were also emotionally and relationally impacted by their
participation and practiced skills related to planting and working with people. Quantitative results indicate thatwomen were happier, calmer, and more peaceful after the intervention than before.
Research limitations/implications – Study limitations include sample size, self-report data and use of ascale not yet tested for reliability and validity.
Practical implications – Findings suggest that nature-based interventions can serve as an adjunct totraditional mental health therapies in correctional settings. Nature-based interventions can support women’s
goals to improve their mental health.
Social implications – Findings suggest that nature-based interventions can serve to improve relationships
among incarcerated women, which may make a positive impact on the prison community. Such interventions
may also assist them in developing relational and technical skills that are useful upon release.
Originality/value – To date, there is limited knowledge about the impact of nature-based interventions on
incarcerated individuals coping with mental health concerns.
Keywords Mental health, Prison, Treatment, Nature, Environmental design, Gardens
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
The USA boasts the world’s highest incarceration rate, incarcerating 2.2 million men andwomen each year in federal and state prisons and local jails (Tsai and Scommegna, 2012).
More than half of these individuals cope with mental health problems including substanceabuse, depression, schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder (Travis et al., 2014).
Incarcerated women struggle with mental health at greater rates than men (Glaze and James,
2006; Prins, 2014; Steadman et al., 2009), with 91 percent of female offenders meeting
lifetime criteria for mental health disorders, 82 percent for substance abuse and 53 percent
for post-traumatic stress disorder (Lynch et al., 2014). This compromised mental health is due,in part, to women’s experiences with childhood abuse as well as intimate partner violence(Lynch et al., 2012, 2013).

Received 27 December 2017
Revised 28 February 201823 March 2018
Accepted 26 March 2018

PAGE 232j

The mental health of those incarcerated, both men and women, is clearly of great concern,
especially for the way it may contribute to offending (Gottfried and Christopher, 2017). In this era
when correctional facilities have become “‘de facto’ mental health treatment facilities” (Honberg,
2015, para. 6), individuals may receive their first mental health services while incarcerated(Farnworth and Muñoz, 2009). However, of the $8 billion spent annually on correctional
healthcare, only 14 percent covered mental health care and pharmaceuticals and 5 percent paid
for substance abuse treatment (Henrichson and Delaney, 2012; The Pew Charitable Trusts and
MacArthur Foundation, 2014). This limited funding translates into less than one hour of mental

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRISONER HEALTHjVOL. 14 NO. 4 2018, pp. 232-243, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1744-9200

DOI 10.1108/IJPH-12-2017-0065

health counseling by trained professionals per week for those without acute mental illness(Hills et al., 2004). The disconnect between severely constrained funding and a significant needfor mental health services, coupled with limited correctional staff training (Daniel, 2007), sets up asystem that is stretched, if not inadequate to meet the needs of incarcerated individuals.

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It is imperative to find new therapeutic mental health approaches that do not require
extensive trained counseling staff and can, in some capacity, be self-directed by theincarcerated person. One approach includes nature-based interventions. Nature has long been
known to have therapeutic benefits for those who are not incarcerated (Alcock et al., 2014;
Astell-Burt et al., 2014; Mitchell, 2013; Roe et al., 2013; Ulrich, 1984). Nature- and horticulturally
oriented programs used within prisons also show positive results (Baybutt and Chemlal, 2016;
Flagler, 1995; Patterson, 2013; Rice and Remy, 1998; Richards and Kafami, 1999;
Van Der Linden, 2015). These studies, however, do not specifically explore the impact ofnature-based interventions on those confined to mental health units within the correctional facility.
Participation in nature-based interventions may improve the social-emotional well-being ofincarcerated individuals struggling with mental health in such a way that they are confined to
specialized units for shorter periods and learn skills for using nature in their daily life to manage
and cope with their health. This pilot study is a first step toward understanding the impact of anature-based intervention on the social-emotional well-being of women incarcerated on a mental
health unit in a state prison.

Literature review
There is significant evidence-based research supporting mental, physical, and psychosocial
benefits associated with access to nature, across various demographics (e.g. Adevi, andLieberg, 2012; Währborg et al., 2014). Research has found that engaging in outdoor natureexperiences reduces stress (Pasanen et al., 2018) and walking in nature increases positive affectand decreases negative affect, as well as increasing revitalization, positive engagement andtranquility ( Johansson et al., 2011). Interaction with nature (IWN) also promotes social inclusion,
which in turn enhances quality of life (Diamant and Waterhouse, 2010). Similar positive effects andsymptom relief have been found among people who have experienced trauma (Linton, 2017;Lorber, 2011; Rice and Remy, 1998; Uvanile, 2012), been diagnosed with clinical depression(Gonzalez et al., 2011; Kam and Siu, 2010) and exhaustion disorder (Sonntag-Ö strö m et al.,2014). An important takeaway message is, “To consider the availability of nature as
merely an amenity fails to recognize the vital importance of nature in effective cognitive
functioning” (Berman et al., 2008, p. 1211).
Limited research suggests that nature affords myriad benefits for those who are incarcerated(Van Der Linden, 2015). Horticultural programs facilitated at prisons and jails contribute toprisoner participation in a purposeful goal oriented activity with opportunities to achieve
rehabilitative outcomes – e.g., gain associative marketable skills for future employment,
experience a sense of accomplishment and resiliency, improve mental health, quality of life, andsocial skills, and decrease recidivism rates (Gallagher, 2013; Khatib and Krasny, 2015;
Lindemuth, 2007; Moore et al., 2015; Patterson, 2013; Polomski et al., 1997; Rice and Remy,
1998; Richards and Kafami, 1999; Sandel, 2004; Van Der Linden, 2015). Other forms ofaccessing nature also contribute to positive outcomes. Earlier studies found that offenders withviews of nature outside their cell windows had fewer health complaints (Moore, 1981) and fewerstress-related physical symptoms (West, 1985), compared to those who lacked such views.
Research in Oregon explored the impact of a nature imagery intervention, in which incarcerated
men viewed nature projected on a wall during regular exercise periods. Findings showed a morethan 25 percent reduction in disciplinary referrals for offenders who exercised while watching
nature videos as compared to another group, who were not shown the videos (Oregon YouthAuthority Director’s Office, 2016). Toews (2016) found that incarcerated women desired to be innatural environments for the ways they imagined it would facilitate experiences of peace, focus
and motivation, success and affirmation.
These results suggest that nature-based therapeutic environments and interventions may positively
change the mental health and quality of life for incarcerated individuals. Such interventions,VOL. 14 NO. 4 2018

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especially when incorporated into the daily life of the correctional environment through outside
and inside gardens and plants, may also address the gap in mental health service provision
given limited resources. Nature-based interventions may support improved mental health upon
release, if formerly incarcerated individuals have access to greened spaces and apply what theylearned while confined.
These findings relative to the impact of IWN are limited, however. Horticultural programs are
typically long-term and focus on vocational training and providing a positive antidote tooccupational deprivation – a lack of meaningful and purposeful activity to engage in; aprominent feature at many correctional institutions (Migura et al., 1997; Molineux andWhiteford, 1999; Polomski et al., 1997; Whiteford, 1997, 2011). As a result, little emphasis isplaced on mental health specifically. Horticulture programs are typically available only tooffenders in the general population, rather than including or directed at those with mental healthconsiderations. Views through windows and access to nature imagery do not provide
opportunities for direct sensory contact with plants (e.g. to touch and smell). No research existsthat specifically explores the impact of the nature-based interventions for those with mental
health issues nor that considers the benefits of short-term, one-time interventions in which
individuals come in direct contact with plants.

Downloaded by La Trobe University At 12:01 02 December 2018 (PT)This study sought to address these gaps by exploring the impact of a one-time nature-based
intervention (planting party) with women incarcerated in a mental health unit. The methodology
included short interviews and a visual analog tool, created specifically for this study. The researchquestions guiding the study inquired about the impact of the nature intervention on women’s
sense of happiness, hopefulness, anger and stress.

Site and intervention description
The Iowa Correctional Institution for Women is located in rural Iowa and confines approximately
500 women. The Iowa State University (ISU) landscape architecture faculty and students havedesigned and built multiple landscapes on the prison campus. The healthcare building includes
two units dedicated to women with acute and subacute mental health issues. The acute unit
treats women with severe mental health diagnoses and includes the suicide and self-injury
prevention rooms, which are closely monitored 24-7. Women in this unit are often restricted totheir rooms for much of the day or require a counselor or mentor to escort them out of their room.
The subacute unit houses approximately 30–40 women with less severe diagnoses, requiringlong-term and more specialized care than those in the acute unit. Most of the women in this unit
can move freely between their room, the dayroom and courtyard (a concrete “yard” enclosed withchain link fence), eat in the dining hall, and visit the gardens outside the unit. Women often move
between these two units, based on their health status.
Women incarcerated in these units have limited access to nature. The units’ dayrooms havelarge windows, which emit moderate levels of natural light and look out to the courtyard.
Women in the subacute unit access this courtyard during the day, except during thrice daily
headcounts and lockdowns. Women in the acute unit are granted access to the courtyard on acase-by-case basis, often with an escort. The women’s rooms have one reasonably large
window that provides natural lighting, which is so high that many women require a chair to lookout of it. Women also have varied access to the prison’s healing garden, which is physicallyaccessible to women in the subacute unit and can be seen from the courtyards and many of theroom windows on both units.
The intervention – a planting party – was open to women who lived in the subacute unit andheld in the unit’s dayroom. Party organizers included university landscape architecture faculty
and students with members of the prison garden crew (who work closely with the university
landscape architecture faculty and students) serving as “mentors.” In total, approximately
15–18 women confined to the unit participated in the party for varying lengths of time given theirschedules, as did 11 mentors. The party included two central activities: transplant a variety ofsmall African violets and succulents into plastic cups for women to tend in their rooms; andtransplant small trees and plants (e.g. ficus, Norfolk Island pine and peacock or rattlesnake plant)
into larger pots for keeping and tending in the dayroom. The women transplanted smaller plants

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at the tables and the larger plants at the tables and on the floor. The mentors and landscapearchitecture hosts guided participants on how to transplant and assisted with the mechanics
of it. After transplanting, the women placed the larger plants around the dayroom, working
together to try out different configurations and make decisions about final placement withconsideration of sightlines to maintain security and circulation to minimize way-finding hazards.
They then coordinated the cleanup efforts and restored the dayroom to its original state.
The party lasted 60 min. Some of the larger plants were sent to the acute unit for the women to
enjoy in their dayroom.

Methodology

Downloaded by La Trobe University At 12:01 02 December 2018 (PT)This pilot study explored the impact of the planting party on participants’ emotions and other selfidentified areas of importance. In total, 16 women who participated in the planting party as unit
participants (n ¼ 11) or mentors (n ¼ 5) agreed to also participate in the study. Study participation
included completing a short post-party interview or focus group and a pre- and post-planting“IWN” scale. The ISU IRB approved this interdisciplinary study. Due to anticipated low literacy
levels and mental health impairments, the informed consent was read aloud to all women after
which they took a consent quiz and, if they passed, signed written consent forms. Party
participation did not require study participation.
Interviews and focus group
Five women who lived on the mental health unit participated in 15-min post-party interviews
and four mentors participated in a 40-min focus group after the party. The semi-structured
one-on-one interviews inquired about aspects of the party the women liked and disliked, howparty participation and the prospect of tending to plants made them feel, benefits to participation,
reactions to the mentors’ assistance, and the potential impact of plants on their daily lives.
The semi-structured focus group questions were similar to those in the interviews, with theaddition of a question to solicit mentors’ thoughts on how the women on the mental health unit
may be impacted by their participation in the party and having plants in their daily lives.
Neither the interviews nor the focus groups inquired about sensitive information and women did
not offer sensitive personal information. For some interview participants, however, participating in
the party brought back memories of childhood and familial relationships. These memories wereexpressed positively and did not warrant intervention at that time. Psychological staff on the unit
were aware of the party and available to women post-party should intervention have been
needed after the party. Unit managers were available to mentors if post-party support wasnecessary. To the best of the researchers’ knowledge, no post-party support was needed forparty participants.
Interaction with nature scale
The authors developed and piloted a VAS, called IWN cards, that women completed before
and after the planting party. Researchers have found that simple one-item VASs are as effective
in measuring physical and psychological conditions as a standardized counterpart and do so ina way that does not overwhelm the participant, especially those with low literacy (Abend et al.,2014; Davey et al., 2007), making them an effective means of data collection for incarcerated
women. The IWN card consists of a two-sided 4 ¼ × 5 ½ inch card which includes four VASs tomeasure perceived movement of four emotional states: sadness-happiness,anger-peacefulness, stressed-calm, and hopelessness-hopefulness. Each scale is anchoredwith emojis, a simple and universal means to convey personal feelings which users find usefulfor conveying information (Huang et al., 2008). Participants made a vertical mark along a 93mm horizontal line to indicate their emotional state before and after the party. The line contained
no numbers nor pre-drawn vertical marks in an effort to avoid leading the participant to conformto specific conventions for rating their emotions and removing the cognitive burden of
extrapolating feelings to numbers or hash marks. Of the 16 study participants, 12 returned
completed both pre- and post-IWN cards, representing a 75 percent return rate.

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Analysis
Researchers used an inductive analytic approach to analyze interview and focus grouptranscripts. This approach drew on constructivist grounded theory approaches in order tounderstand the data through increasingly higher levels of coding and engage in constantcomparative methods (Charmaz, 2006). Given the constructivist assertion that researchers bring
their own biases and preconceptions to the analytic process, analysis began with sensitization toconceptual issues drawn from literature with their respective fields of study, including criminal
justice, occupational therapy and landscape architecture. Two researchers analyzed interviews
and focus groups transcripts separately and, after comparison and resolution of discrepancies,
created a final list of codes, and reanalyzed transcripts. No demographic information wascollected beyond offender identification numbers, which were de-identified.

Downloaded by La Trobe University At 12:01 02 December 2018 (PT)The IWN scores, measured from left to right along a 93-mm horizontal line, were recorded
in millimeters. For each of the four emoji pairs, vertical marks made between 0–31 mm
were categorized as a negative emotional state (e.g. sad, angry, stressed and hopeless),
31.1–61.9 mm as neutral and 62–93 mm as a positive emotional state (e.g. happy, peaceful, calmand hopeful). To insure interrater reliability, two researchers measured the pre- and post-test
emoji ratings using straight rulers. Scoring discrepancies were resolved through re-measurement
until calibration was reached. Though working with a small sample size (n ¼ 12 completedassessments), paired sample t-tests were also run on the sample to explore, albeit cautiously,
statistically significant relationships between pre- and posttest scores.

Results
Results include qualitative results from interviews and focus groups and quantitative results fromanalysis of the IWN cards.
Qualitative results
For many of the women, having a living object to nurture in their rooms was profoundly meaningful
for them and participants’ responses to the plants were enthusiastic. Several overarching themes
emerged from the interviews and focus group to suggest that it was not the interaction with theplants per se that was most impactful but rather, it was what the plants did for the environment,
for the women emotionally, for their relationships with each other and their ability to practice skills.
General reactions party participation
The hands-on planting was a highlight for many women. Stephanie (all names have beenchanged to protect participant identities), spoke most eloquently on this aspect of the party:
When I first reached into the potting soil and felt the soil in my hand, [it] was good for me. Why?
Because I felt earth that God created […]. I remember[ed] that when a child comes home and is dirty
after playing in the mud […] that means your child had fun. So, I was looking forward to getting a little
dirt under my nails yesterday.

Others simply enjoyed the beauty of the plants – the colors, textures and visual diversity. All
women expressed appreciation for the party and desires for similar events in the future.
Impact of plants on the environment
Women spoke repeatedly about how having plants in the dayroom and their rooms made it feel“homey” in several ways. For Neveah, it created an atmosphere of “welcoming,” albeit “about asmuch as you can for a prison.” Izzy likened the scent of the pine trees to “a home life. You know, likeholidays remind you of family.” Those not permitted to go outside appreciated the ability to directlyinteract with plants, rather than just seeing them through a window. These thoughts amplify thenotion that inside plants can impart a sense of deinstitutionalization in a correctional facility.
Women also spoke to the beauty the plants brought to the physical environment, which served to
freshen and “cleanse” the dayroom and again, counteract the institutional feel by introducing

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color into an otherwise monochromatic environment. Izzy pointed out her concern for the“stagnant air” and noted how the plants “emit [things] into the air,” which helped create a better
environment. Terri honed in on the colors stating, “I think just having colors alone around me […]makes me feel better, want to do better.” Here, Terri begins to connect the environment withemotional health.
Emotional impact

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Participants frequently spoke about the positive emotional impact of the party and at theprospect of having plants in their daily living spaces. Women used words like “happy,” “cheer,”“peaceful” and “calm” to describe their experiences after the party and what they imagined now
that the plants were there. In short, the plants served as a mood lifter as well as a mellowing
agent. In terms of the latter, Cassandra reflected: “[Planting] calms me down. […] Like, when I
have a bad day, I feel like I should be outdoors and calming down, listening to music andplanting.” Glory attributed these good feelings to being able to “free their mind and focus on
something else rather than being in prison […]. It gets our minds off of problems, like, at home orin the world or in their life.”
Women also spoke of the ways they experienced a sense of purpose and belonging, related tocompleting a task and doing something useful. Malinda summed up this feeling when she said,“I felt like I was using my time wisely. I wasn’t just wandering around aimlessly doing nothing like I
usually do.” Their sense of belonging stemmed from a feeling that they were part of something
bigger than themselves and something that could not get done with just one of them alone.
Stephanie reflected on her experience: “[W]hen you’re working with somebody and everybody’s
working together, there’s this happiness inside of continuing a project that’s called work. […] It
took more than one of God’s children to complete, and it was beautiful.” Several other women
also noted the spiritual aspects of the connection.
Social impact
The women transplanted small plants for themselves as well as larger plants for shared enjoyment
in the dayroom. These two activities created numerous opportunities for the women to interact
with each other. Many women spoke about the impact of the party on their relationships witheach other, especially as it relates to helping behaviors. Neveah noted how the party may instill
graciousness among women who have not appreciated each other previously:[…] you can be on the unit with someone and can’t stand them because of their attitude and stuff, but I
think the planting and stuff could bring us together, because not everyone’s good with plants and what
they need [is help] […].

Neveah’s reflection highlights the ways in which having plants may facilitate women’s comfort toask for help and inspire a willingness to help.
The women also experienced successful opportunities to achieve goals collaboratively, whether it
was filling pots with soil, lifting trees into pots, or arranging the transplanted trees and plants
around the dayroom. Stephanie noted how everyone “pitched in” to clean up after the party andtry out different options for plant placement:
People didn’t all, like, scatter like roaches when the lights come on […] because everybody was willingto find a broom and pitch in and throw stuff away. […] [E]verybody had suggestions [about where toplace the plants], and when plants needed to be lifted and more [than one person was] needed to[carry it], people pitched in and helped.

This collaboration and pitching in may have stemmed from the sense of purpose and belonging
discussed earlier.
Skills practice
Women found themselves practicing skills, as it related to plants and working with people whohave mental health issues. Some women, already experienced gardeners, learned how totransplant or better care for plants. Cassandra, for instance, stated that she “loved [the planting

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party] because I was excited to try new things. It was like a new thing to me […] so you guys
actually taught me how to plant and water them.” This skill development came from not only
engagement with the university organizers, but also from each other.
The women, those who lived on the unit and those who did not, gained new insights and skills
related to interacting with and assisting those who struggle with their mental health. For some, it
was simply learning more about the mental health unit, its services, and the women it served, anddispelling misunderstandings about what it is like. Others gained more personal insight.
Stephanie, who lived on the unit, found herself learning the need for patience:[W]hen we first started, I was looking at the plants and the soil, and I wanted to get started. And I was
impatient […] So I had to sit and wait for us to read the purple paper and sign […]. So [the other
women] were taking longer, and I was getting irritated and impatient […].They have to sign something,so I understand that part. But I wasn’t patient.

Terri indicated that this “learning” experience was the best part of the party.
Quantitative results

Downloaded by La Trobe University At 12:01 02 December 2018 (PT)The IWN VAS offers preliminary insight into the quantitative impact of the planting partyon the women. Prior to the party, the women were neutral on all emotional ranges, except
hopeless-hopeful for which they indicated feeling more positive; that is, hopeful. After the party,
the women indicated feelings toward the positive end of the range for all emotions. This
positive movement from pre- to post-party was significant for three emotion pairs: sad-happy(t(3.04), p ¼ 0.011), stressed-calm (t(2.72), p ¼ 0.02) and angry-peaceful (t(3.4), p ¼ 0.006).
No significance was noted with the hopeless-hopeful scale (Table I).

Discussion
The planting party significantly impacted the women who participated, both those confined on
the mental health unit and the mentors. Overall, the participants enjoyed the party in various
ways – e.g., an opportunity to get dirty and just generally be around beauty and color. They also
appreciated the way having plants on the unit made it feel more welcoming and homey, while
beautifying the environment. The women’s involvement brought about a sense of happiness,calm, and belonging and an overall improved mood, while facilitating relationships between themand opportunities to work collaboratively. The party also contributed to skill development, bothwith plants but also working with those who struggle with mental health. These findings are
consistent with previous literature related to IWN and its impact on mental health, social, andvocational outcomes.
The women’s interviews also highlight the emotional impact of the party and the presence ofplants. They were happy and excited to participate and anticipated the “good vibes” andpeacefulness that could come from interacting directly with plants in their rooms and thedayroom. Their reflections, however, suggest that the more valuable party outcomes relate to asense of purpose and belonging, their relationships with each other, and skill development.

Table I Means and t-scores for IWN scores pre- and post-planting party
M ab (SD)
Emotion range

Pre-party

Post-partyt c (SD)

Sad-Happy
Stressed-Calm
Angry-Peaceful
Hopeless-Hopeful

58.6 (18.17)
57.0 (20.34)
63.3 (20.19)
63.1 (28.21)

74.5** (14.51)
68.6* (19.60)
75.2** (14.36)
71.3 (20.69)

3.04 (18.11)
2.72 (15.10)
3.40 (12.05)
2.04 (13.95)

Notes: n ¼ 12. aAll means and standard deviations in millimeters; b0–31 ¼ negative emotion (e.g. sad, angry,
stressed and hopeless); 31.1–61.9 ¼ neutral emotion; 62–93 ¼ positive emotion (e.g. happy, peaceful, calmand hopeful); cdf ¼ 11. *po0.05; **po 0.01

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Downloaded by La Trobe University At 12:01 02 December 2018 (PT)Rather than idly doing their time or engaging in tasks that seemed inconsequential to them, thewomen participated in a meaningful and purposeful activity in which they could create beauty,
experience its benefits immediately, and imagine the future benefits for them and for others. They
knew that the process for creating that beauty and future experience could not be achieved by orfor them alone; it required the women coming together. The women extended this purposefulexperience to their relationships with other participants, both those who were confined to the unit
and the mentors. They asked for help from others and gave it when asked in the party, andoffered their help outside the party, especially as it related to the plants in their rooms. They
collaborated to transplant plants and trees, taking on individual tasks to complete the transplantand sharing tasks to make the process more efficient. They talked together to discern where toplace the trees in the dayroom and worked together to move them from place to place. The final
outcome – greened cells and dayroom – was something that they accomplished together
because it required everyone to be involved.
The women valued the skills they learned anew and advanced through their party participation, as
it is related to both gardening and the mentors, working with those with mental healthconsiderations. While the skill practice that occurred in the party was minimal and basic given the
short-time frame and tasks, the overall potential for this is consistent with the vocational skill
development that occurs in prison-based horticultural programs. While this study was notintended to be a functional assessment of women’s skills, when taken into consideration
alongside the social outcomes, there exists a vision that, even within the confines of a restrictive
correctional environment (Tan et al., 2015), engagement with nature through gardening may be a
purposeful and meaningful activity that “create[s] satisfactory engagements that lead to functional
improvement among offenders” (Tan et al., 2015, p. 528). More so, it may be a path to reduce
occupational deprivation for those confined in a correctional facility, including those with mental
health considerations.
The quantitative IWN scale results suggest that a planting party may improve the mood ofparticipants, consistent with existing literature on the impact of IWN on emotional andmental health. Overall, participants felt more happy, calm, and peaceful after the party. It is
important to note that mean scores for all four emoji pairs trended in a neutral-to-positive andpositive-to-more positive direction – e.g., the sad-happy and stressed-calm scores pre-party
were in the high neutral range and moved to positive post-party and ratings for angry-peacefulwere in the positive range pre-party and became more positive post-party – rather than otherpermutations, such as negative-to-neutral or negative-to-positive. While these results arepromising in the trend toward positivity, they are indicative of moderate, rather than dramatic,changes in emotional state for the way women already had relatively positive affect prior to theparty. The lack of significant relationship between the pre- and post-party ratings on
the hopeless-hopeful scale is unexpected, as one would expect it to also increase because of
the positive experiences women had in the party. This null finding may be due to high levels ofhope women already had coming into the party. It may also stem from validity issues or sample
size. Overall, these findings must be considered with caution, given the small sample size andthat the negative, neutral and positive emotion ranges were arbitrarily determined and may not
be clinically meaningful.
Overall, these pilot findings suggest that gardening, even something as simple as a one-hourtransplanting party, could be an adjunct to traditional mental health therapy or provide
therapeutic opportunities when traditional methods are unavailable or limited. This study,
however, is not without limitations. The sample size is quite small and future researchnecessitates expanding the number of participants involved in the gardening intervention andutilizing the IWN scale. Further, emotional health was used as a proxy for mental health, which
may limit how much we actually know about the impact of short-term gardening intervention on
mental health specifically. The study also relied on participant self-report of their emotions on ascale that had not been tested for validity and reliability, leaving much open to interpretation. We
do not know, for instance, the meaning each woman ascribed to each emotion or if their
responses were an attempt to curry favor with the organizers in hopes of a second planting
party. We also do not know definitively why they felt more positive – e.g., was it because of theplanting or the social aspects of the party. Future research requires addressing these limitations
by: exploring the psychometric properties of the IWN instrument; measuring outcomes via

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biometrics (e.g. heart rate variability and salivary cortisol levels) and over a longer duration
after the intervention; and comparing outcomes across different interventions – e.g., planting
and arts/craft activities – to explore the degree to which outcomes are associated withgardening or other factors inherent to the intervention. Further, in order to determine a causal
relationship between gardening and emotions, it is important to undertake randomized control
trial research using the IWN. Questions also surface about the potential for beneficial impacts ofa planting party on the staff who work on the unit during the party. Benefits may include
improved mood resulting from their own view of, and possibly direct interaction with, plants andimproved perceptions of incarcerated individuals with mental health issues that stem from
witnessing them actively collaborate. Future research can also explore these beneficial, as well
as negative, outcomes on staff.

Downloaded by La Trobe University At 12:01 02 December 2018 (PT)The results of this study suggest that a short-term, one-time nature intervention can have positive
emotional effects on women incarcerated in a mental health unit and provide them with muchneeded meaningful social and vocational enrichment. If plants stay on the unit, the intervention
may also impart a sense of deinstitutionalization, which may further positively impact thewell-being of unit residents. Such interventions are more feasible to implement than multi-weekprograms that require substantial funding, staff and material resources or extensive gardening
initiatives that require use of facility grounds. This approximately one-hour, one-time intervention
can be facilitated in partnership with existing horticultural programs inside and outside
the correctional facility, a community-based master gardener club, or by correctional staff
themselves, especially those who enjoy gardening at home. Indeed, as research related tothis intervention continues, the decision to offer such an intervention is a small, short term
investment that may have a powerful emotional, social, and vocational impact on the individuals
who participate.

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Further reading
Farbstein, J., Farling, M. and Wener, R. (2012), “The impact of simulated nature views on stress in acorrectional setting”, American Institute of Architects, available at: www.aia.org/akr/Resources/Documents/
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well-being”, Environment and Behavior, Vol. 49 No. 10, pp. 1071-104.
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Report Number: NCJ-195670, Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Washington, DC,available at: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED477377.pdf (accessed December 1, 2017).

Corresponding author
Barb Toews can be contacted at: btoews@uw.edu

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