Spring & Summer 2020
We adapted the Workshop Series to deliver content remotely, via presentations and videos on closed-circuit televisions (available to the vast majority of incarcerated residents). Program students who mail in reflective, responsive writing on the topic still can be tracked and recognized with program certificates. This program is currently active at only one facility, Stafford Creek Corrections Center. Learn more about program transitions and changes in a recent blog.
Pre-pandemic: SPP has delivered a lecture and workshop series continually since 2009. The program is currently hosted by three prisons: Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen, Washington Corrections Center in Shelton, and Mission Creek Corrections Center for Women in Belfair, Washington. We facilitate many additional presentations and workshops at other Washington State prisons. In this time, we have offered more than 300 lectures and workshops to more than 4,000 students in prison. We have awarded roughly 1,000 program certificates to students for workshop attendance and participation.

More than 250 guest scientists and practitioners from more than 140 organizations have shared their expertise in the program: see our Thank You page for recent guest experts. Scientists and community members active in science and sustainability are invited to share their passion and knowledge with incarcerated individuals at one or both facilities.

Typical workshops are about 90 minutes. Topics have included climate change, energy and biofuels, animal track identification, wetlands, environmental justice, green building, native plant identification, butterflies, composting, and scientific illustration, just to name a few. We advertise each topic ahead of time so that students can prioritize the sessions most interesting to them.

The most successful and engaging workshops offer lots of time for discussion — our students ask great questions! Other welcome offerings include hands-on activities, specimens to examine, writing, diagramming, drawing, handouts, worksheets, audio or video clips, photographs, and demonstrations. Think about varied ways to share your own excitement for the topic, and be ready to challenge them and have a great time. If you’d like more guidance on developing a workshop, please see SPP’s guidelines for prison workshops.
Once we are able to re-start the program, if you are interested in sharing your time and talent with our students, take a look at the available workshop dates below, and sign up for a workshop here.
Mission Creek Corrections Center for Women | Stafford Creek Corrections Center | Washington Corrections Center |
1st Friday of the month 9:00-11:00 am, Belfair | 3rd Thursday of the month 9:30-11:00 am, Aberdeen | 4th Wednesday of the month 2:30-4:00 pm, Shelton |
August 26, 2020 | ||
September 17, 2020 | ||
October 2, 2020 | October 15, 2020 | October 28, 2020 |
November 6, 2020 | November 19, 2020 | November 25, 2020 |
December 4, 2020 | December 17, 2020 | December 23, 2020 |
To learn more about the workshop series, please contact spp@evergreen.edu.
SPP blogs on the Environmental Workshop Series
Workshops in the COVID-19 Era (2020)
(Before COVID19): Octopus Kicks off the Workshop Series at MCCCW (2020)
When Nature Meets Art (2019)
Origin Story of a Compost Program (2019)
Rethinking the Landscape of Incarceration (2019)
Wolves: More like Humans than You’d Think! (2018)
Cross Pollination: Violet Program Presents in the Workshop Series (2018)
Astrobiology for the Incarcerated – Washington (2018)
Workshop series expands to WCC! (take two) (2018)
Long Live the Kings! (2018)
Climate Change Symposium in Prison: Incarcerated people creating solutions (2017)
SPP, Allies, and Friends: Thank you and goodbye! (2017)
What do the students get from SPP lectures Part Three: Session at the Women’s Prison (2017)
What do the students get from SPP lectures? Part Two: Session at the Men’s Prison (2017)
What do the students get from SPP lectures? Part One: Surveys Say…! (2017)
Lecture Series Coordinators 1, 2, 3 (2017)
Creative Illustrations for Monarch Butterfly Conservation (2016)
Princess Remington and Pele: Royalty in a prison classroom (2016)
Nothing like an octopus in prison! (2016)
It was a Toad-ally Ribbiting Lecture with the Special Offenders Unit (2016)
Lecture Series Expands to Shelton (2016)
Sustainability… in Prison? SPP Coordinator and MES Graduate Candidate, Tiffany Webb, shares her experience of working in prisons (2015)
WCCW Sustainability Workshop (2014)
WCCW’s Science & Sustainability Lecture Series: An Inmate’s Perspective (2013)
Beekeeping Behind Bars (2013)
Lecture Series Update (2012)
WCCW Winter Lecture Series a Success (2011)
Lectures Captivate Washington Corrections Center for Women (2010)