The only inmates who get one hour of sunshine/rec, are those in solitary confinement for disciplinary reasons. Some of those cells may have windows.They can get visits and a limited commissary, library/law books, mail privileges.
"I've often thought that getting the salvageable among these people in touch with the land, and with animals, would change their lives incredibly."
How is that going to change their lives when most of them are from the inner city, and will go back to the inner city, to the same neighborhoods they came from, and where the type of animals I assume you're talking about (land, farm animals?) won't be around. They did have farm programs at some of the prisons in New York, but they were stopped because they weren't prosperous enough. The Superintendent of the last prison I worked at wanted to have a beef farm, but the State shot him down. He had raised beef himself, and thought it would be something positive. The powers that be said no. We have prison industry in New York prisons. It's called Corcraft. According to their website: "Division of Correctional Industries uses manufacturing as a component of DOCCS overall reentry program, which is designed to teach inmates work ethic and skills. Corcraft trains inmates to make a variety of high-quality products at manufacturing shops inside 14 of NYs correctional facilities. These products are then sold to Corcrafts specific customer base, which includes public entities and charitable, not-for-profit organizations that receive tax dollars. Corcraft cannot sell to private parties or organizations."
For example, Auburn prison makes license plates and office furniture.
As far as writing them off...they write themselves off. They settle for status quo, most are happy where they are, and although there are inmates who do work to better themselves, it's not the norm.