Prisons Go Green

Today is the 40th anniversary of the original Earth Day. It's a day to celebrate our planet and redouble our commitment to saving it — and prisons around the world are in on the fun.

Prisoners in Washington are gardening, composting and recycling. Chicago's massive jail has a thriving urban farm, where prisoners learn to become master gardeners and have begun supplying fruit and vegetables to local restaurants. Recently released prisoners in Newark are spending this Earth Day helping with an electronics recycling program. A pilot project in Norway prisons teaches forestry and sustainable farming.

It's exciting to see budding eco-initiatives at prisons arnd the world. Officials are finally realizing that these programs are win-wins: they save the prison money (for eg., by helping to reduce energy costs) while training prisoners with valuable skills for emerging green industries.

But the initiatives mentioned above aren't enough. Right now, these programs are limited to a few states and a few countries, but they can work everywhere — and help reduce recidivism, too.

For example, many of the millions of green jobs promised by the Obama administration will be perfectly suited to released prisoners. Every year, we free 700,000 people in the United States. Many of them struggle to find work, often returning to jail. We should be training prisoners in green jobs like retrofitting houses for energy efficiency and building and installing solar panels so that when they're released, they're on the cutting edge of a new economy.

I've followed the renewed interest in greening prisons for several years now, and California and Washington have consistently emerged as leaders in the movement. California, for example, has two major prison solar plants and has reduced water consumption across its enormous Department of Corrections by 21%. Washington's Sustainable Prisons Project, a partnership between the DOC and Evergreen State College, includes a huge range of environmental efforts — from biological study to beekeeping to good old-fashioned manual lawnmowers.

Unfortunately, many states are still running big prison farms that more closely resemble industrial agriculture than anything to celebrate on Earth Day.

Still, though, the call for green reform in prisons is growing. It will take plenty of foresight and investment for prisons around the country to go green — but states like California show us that the payoff is swift and inspiring.

Photo Credit: David Silver