Prisoners tend to be marginalized and deprived of the rights and privileges that others may enjoy, this make them susceptible to depression. Extensive research have been carried out on treatment of depression, however a review is essential to determine the evidence based complementary approach for examining depression among prisoners. Thus, the objective of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of the complementary approach to reduce depressive symptoms among adult prison inmates. Literature on the randomized control trial of complementary approach on depression published between 2012 and June 2017 was searched using various keywords. Literature resources were mainly from PubMed, EBSCOhost, Science Direct, and Wiley Online Library. The inclusion criteria were English full text, adult prison inmates with a diagnosis of depression, while the exclusion criteria include diagnostic instruments or other pharmacological trials. A total 158 studies were identified and after eliminating 21 duplicates, there were 137 articles to review. 22 studies have met the criteria for full-text review, however, some papers were excluded due to valid reasons, and only five studies were eligible for final review. Yoga, music therapy and cognitive bibliotherapy have showed potential to be used as complementary approaches for reducing depressive symptoms. However, the approach of ‘seeking safety’, which is a short-term behavioural intervention, was found to have an insignificant effect. Meanwhile, Beck Depression Inventory were most commonly used study instrument for measurement of outcome. Future research is needed to account for the varying modes of depression intervention which includes pharmacology trial or other study design.