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| Greening the Prison-Industrial Complex |
| By NY Times |
| Published: 03/06/2009 |
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March 3, 2009 By Beth Schwartzapfel Instead of reporting to the laundry or the kitchen or the boiler room, a Washington state prison inmate, Robert Knowles, reports to the compost heap. Mr. Knowles is taking part in a “green work” program at the Cedar Creek Corrections Center. Inmates grow organic produce, compost the prison’s food waste, take part in ecological research projects with a nearby university, and even produce honey from the prison’s own hives. The Washington State Department of Corrections boasts 34 LEED-certified facilities, with 923,789 square feet of LEED-certified space added in fiscal year 2008 alone. Washington is not alone. It seems several states are busy rethinking the old concrete-box approach to prisons — home to more than two million Americans — and high on the agenda are energy efficiency and other “green” upgrades. This fall, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced 16 new green retrofitting projects, which they estimate will save $3 million in energy costs each year. The state already has solar power fields at two facilities, and plans to build six more in the coming year. A new $176 million juvenile detention facility in Alameda County — home to Berkeley and Oakland — recently became the country’s first jail to receive LEED gold certification. Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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