The Greening of America's Prisons

by Matt Kelley · 2009-07-08 15:42:00 UTC
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An innovative program is growing in Washington State prisons - and it's getting noticed. The state prison system is going green - training prisoners in alternative energy and sustainable farming and converting its prisons to Earth-friendly facilities. At the heart of the state's experiment is a partnership between Evergreen State College and the Cedar Creek Corrections Center, but it has spread statewide and Washington is now setting an example for the rest of the country.

I've written before about sustainable prison initiatives in California and Norway. It's clear that alternative energy isn't going away, and even if reforms make progress and our prison populations decrease significantly, there will always be prisons. Moving our prisons toward ecological sustainability is a win-win - our state infrastructure will reduce its carbon footprint and prisoners will be trained in an emerging and high-demand industry.

From OPB News:

Jeff Muse (of Evergreen State): "These are essentially small cities running 24-7. If we can make them more sustainable not only will it save money, save natural resources, but be an example for all kinds other institutions such as military bases, summer camps, hospitals, schools."

That means the prisons are reducing water and electricity use. But they're also recycling everything they can down to the prison-issue shoes that inmates wear. Even composting is catching on behind bars.

Dig deeper with this excellent in-depth article from Miller-McCune on Evergreen professor's Nalini Nadkarni innovative moss-farming project at Cedar Creek Corrections Center.

And check out the Sustainable Prisons Project homepage.

hat tip: @brookpete

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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