Sustainable Prisons: What If?

Serving hard time means facing a hard reality once a sentence is served.  Former convicts often finish their sentences unprepared for jobs, much less professions, and are generally considered undesirable as employees.  An experiment (and actually a number of research projects) being conducted in Washington state brings science and nature to prisons and prisoners.  One goal is education for inmates and sustainable job training.

"We conduct ecological research and conserve biodiversity by forging collaborations with scientists, inmates, prison staff, students, and community partners. Equally important, we help reduce the environmental, economic, and human costs of prisons by inspiring and informing sustainable practices."  Sustainable Prisons Project

Washington State Department of Corrections partners with Evergreen State College by way of the Sustainable Prisons Project.   Current inmates and ex-offenders who show an interest are taught sustainability, green-collar jobs, and given educational opportunities that advance scientific research.  Some prisoners do organic gardening.  Others are trained as beekeepers.  One program has prisoners raising the endangered Oregon spotted frogs for release back into the wild.  Endangered plant life is being cultivated for transplanting in nature.

Program coordinators note the value of connecting the incarcerated to the world beyond bars and razor wire. Prisoners say they feel like they're being prepared to do something meaningful once their time is served.