IA Sustainable prison
The Sustainable Prisons Project is a partnership of the Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC) and The Evergreen State College. The mission behind the project is to reduce cost and the environmental impact of prison operations by training prison staff and offenders in science, sustainability and skills for the emerging green community.
They stand to serve as a model for other prisons and enforced residential institutions and help scientists conduct and share ecological research in collaboration with incarcerated men and women.
From what I have learned, the inmates love it more then you might think. It gives them an opportunity to fix their lives and give them a possible potential future outside the walls they are fixed inside of.
It started in 2004, when the DOC and Evergreen began a distinctive partnership at the Cedar Creek Corrections Center. It lead to what is today’s Sustainable Prisons Project, where pilot activites at Cedar Creek helped the prison reduce its operating costs and environmental impacts while fostering engagement with nature and conservation among the entire prison community.
There are many projects going on among the participants, such as a greenhouse and garden which produces roughly 15,000 lbs. annually, saving more than $17,000 per year on healthy, organic vegetables. Also low-tech food composting (including worm culture), harcore recycling, and beekeeping (adding honey to the dining hall menu, and beeswax for the on-site production of hand-lotion) are among the projects of the newly more sustainable prison.
The plan is that this will go so well that it will spread to more prisons in the future and give more options and healthy alternatives to those which would normally be so harmful.
Comments
I had no idea that this was happening. I think it is a great idea. The prison system needs to be more about rehabilitation than confinement and punishment. I hope the rest of the country will follow suit, so that fewer prisons are needed.
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!