|
|
| RIDOC Facilities & Maintenance Department Goes Green |
| By Rhode Island Department of Corrections |
| Published: 11/15/2011 |
|
CRANSTON, R.I. – Anthony Feole, Associate Director of Facilities & Maintenance at the Rhode Island Department of Corrections (RIDOC) has initiated a Department-wide recycling program which has generated approximately $9,400 thus far for the department. Rather than simply putting new systems on top of old systems as had been done in the past, all wiring, plumbing and construction materials are being stripped from the 1940’s era buildings under renovation and then recycled. “We’re stripping right down to the original building,” Feole notes, “eliminating multiple layered systems that would likely become problematic.” The topic of “sustainable corrections” has become widely known in the corrections field, especially since budget cuts for corrections departments are now rampant. Sustainable corrections is an umbrella term applied to saving money by reducing energy and water consumption through the use of energy efficient appliances in correctional facilities and through the use of inmate labor in recycling programs. The buildings under renovation include the Dorothea Dix Building (formerly the women’s Minimum Security and Work Release building and now home to numerous administrative departments such as the Education Unit and Cranston Probation and Parole), the new Gloria McDonald Women’s Awaiting Trial and Medium Security Facility, the men’s Minimum Security Facility, and the Bernadette Building (future home to Minimum Security and Work Release women currently being housed in the old Gloria McDonald facility on Wilma Schesler Road). Inmates have helped remove waste material from the facilities so that they can be recycled. Thirty-five to forty miles of wiring, old disks, fencing, refrigerators and TVs were separated and taken to a recycling area adjacent to Garvey Field behind the men’s Minimum Security Facility. In addition to the recycling, the Department is using all new latex paints that are eco-smart and contain no lead or asbestos. While in the process of stripping down the buildings to their original state, asbestos floors were discovered and covered over. The floors are made out of a soy-based green product, which is also eco-friendly. Old, unused showers were removed from the basement of an existing building and rehabbed at Correctional Industries, utilizing modernized mold- and mildew-resistant materials. Doors which contained asbestos are being replaced with rehabbed doors no longer needed in other buildings. High efficiency, low voltage lighting and fans are being used in all rehab projects. Trimmings and branches are being chipped and saved and chemicals added for the purpose of creating the Department’s own mulch to help in the beautification of the campus. Grass clippings are being turned into loom to be used throughout the complex. Vegetables discarded by dining halls are being utilized as a soil product. Stone and ballast roofs, which are now illegal because the stones can fly off in severe weather and injure people, have been updated. The stone is now being used in place of pavement in perimeter areas. Material collected by street sweepers is now saved and used for clean fill. The outdoor recycling center was formerly a dumping ground for several buildings on the complex and a spot where the homeless would occasionally camp out. Inmate crews did a massive clean-up of the area, which is now enclosed by a locked fence and houses various dumpsters containing sorted recyclable products such as paper, cans/bottles, appliances, metals, and piles of crushed stone, mulch, etc. Mr. Feole has met with all of the facility wardens and building managers and gotten their buy-in to the recycling program. Inmate crews now go around to each facility to pick up recyclables and bring them to the recycling area. Some are reused on the campus and others, such as paper and cans from each of the facilities, are picked up by an outside vendor from New Hampshire who now only has to make one pickup rather than multiple stops, saving the Department money. A self declared “recycling fool,” Feole is hoping to get all of the departments on the Pastore Complex involved in the program. He credits Assistant Director for Administrative Services Ellen Evans Alexander and Director A.T. Wall with making the program possible. “They’ve been awesome,” he says. “Their support has been huge!” Both the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) and the Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH) are interested in the new practices being utilized on the Cranston complex, which is home to several state agencies. |
Comments:
Login to let us know what you think
MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
|
Have you been looking for social media websites of business leaders like Hamilton Lindley Zoominfo page? It’s got the latest business contact information for Hamilton Lindley.