Con-Post: Prisons focus on greening too
Being sustainable is something that everybody is doing, no matter where they are in life. Interesting article from MSNBC
Inmates of the minimum-security facility, 25 miles from Olympia, the state capital, raise bees, grow organic tomatoes and lettuce, compost 100 percent of food waste and even recycle shoe scraps that are made into playground turf.
“It reduces cost, reduces our damaging impact on the environment, engages inmates as students,” said Eldon Vail, secretary of the Washington Department of Corrections, which oversees 15 prisons and 18,000 offenders. “It’s good security.”
The most interesting and reinforcing part of this article (for me) was that people can be entrepreneurial ANYWHERE. Inmates should not be allowed to make money, but should do positive projects that build skills, and more importantly, give them hope to make a decent, peaceful living when they leave. Some recycle scraps from old prison blues to make diaper bags for women’s shelters and dog beds for animal shelters. Another inmate is managing a bee hive, learning to make honey and lotions from the wax.
How great would it be if companies like Burt’s Bees or smaller farmer market businesses came into prisons and taught sustainable skills? Reform is possible for those willing to change.
November 5th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
I have another prison greening initiative. Have inmates ride stationary bikes that generate electricity. They are allowed to use all the electricity they want, as long as they produce it themselves.
November 6th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
I work with a companion animal education and resource, Monty’s Home, http://www.montyshome.org. In September of this year, we started the Pawsitive Partners Prison Program. We rescue dogs from local shelters and take them through an eight-week training course prior to placing them in their forever homes.
Professional trainers volunteer their time to teach the inmates how to work with the dogs. The dogs live in kennels at the facility, with the inmate trainers spending 10 to 12 hours a day working with the animals.
As we planned this program over the past 18 months, our focus was on the benefit to the dogs. The first day we brought the dogs to the facility, we knew, the dogs were only a small portion of the long list of individuals benefiting from the program. Inmate trainers, inmates outside the program, prison guards, administrators and volunteers are in awe of the exponential goodness generated by working with the inmates and the dogs.
That’s not all, the prison’s horticulture department raises Japanese Maple seedlings and other bedding plants for an annual spring fundraiser, and the sewing department takes scraps and donated fabric and makes dog beds for the program dogs as well as for sale. Each department takes a great deal of pride in the work they do and are especially proud they can now give something back to the community.
Working within the prison system to support a canine rescue initiative is a win-win proposition for everyone — the dogs, the inmates, the volunteers AND the public at large.
You’re absolutely right. Prisons house an amazing resource of willing labor. That labor needs sustainable skills for when they’re released. Providing skills training in return for saleable output goes a long way in turning lives around.
One young man in our prison program said to me, “You know, I’ve always loved dogs. I never thought I could get a job training them. And now, I’m learning something, that maybe after I’m out, I could use to start my own business …” Given a purpose, some training and some direction, who knows, he just might succeed.