Based on a qualitative field study in a French detention facility, this article examines the meanings that underly the greening of prisons. It highlights the discrepancy between greening as defined at the national level and how it is appropriated by prison staff in the studied prison (who integrate it into a perspective of security and prisoners’ well-being). This study thus highlights the contradictions between environmental ambitions and security issues, as well as the difficulty of integrating these ambitions in the same way as occurs in other public institutions. This perspective allows for the consideration of prison greening (particularly the development of gardens and green spaces) beyond the duality often proposed by scientific literature, where it is either a factor in inmate well-being or a symbol of austerity and disciplinary logics.

Based on a qualitative field study in a French detention facility, this article examines the meanings that underly the greening of prisons. It highlights the discrepancy between greening as defined at the national level and how it is appropriated by prison staff in the studied prison (who integrate it into a perspective of security and prisoners’ well-being). This study thus highlights the contradictions between environmental ambitions and security issues, as well as the difficulty of integrating these ambitions in the same way as occurs in other public institutions. This perspective allows for the consideration of prison greening (particularly the development of gardens and green spaces) beyond the duality often proposed by scientific literature, where it is either a factor in inmate well-being or a symbol of austerity and disciplinary logics.