by Sadie Gilliom, SPP Frog and Turtle Program Coordinator
The Amazing Turtle Shed. Photo by Mr. Bruce Carley
The horticulture program at Cedar Creek Corrections Center (CCCC) needed storage for their tools, and started using the turtle program’s shed. Soon it became apparent that the turtle program would require a new turtle shed.
The project was brought up to Mr. Bruce Carley, the building maintenance education instructor from Centralia College. He decided that if they were going to build a new shed they were going to do it right! He wanted the new building to reflect the uniqueness of the program and provide a new building challenge for his inmate crew. He successfully achieved both goals!
With the leadership of Mr. Carley and inmate Noblin, they created a turtle shed masterpiece! The most magnificent aspect is the giant turtle that acts as a roof for the building. The huge turtle head was sculpted by an amazing artist, inmate Burham. This was his first 3-D piece of artwork.
Inmate Burham and his artwork. Photo by Mr. Bruce Carley
Except for some of the roofing supplies, the building materials were re-claimed and recycled products. Thermoplastic polyolefin was used as the stretchy material on the roof and was a new building material to both the inmates and Mr. Carley. In addition, a prismatic skylight was installed. This skylight brings heat and light into the shed and was a new installation experience for the inmate crew!
Mr. Bruce Carley and the Turtle Shed Crew. Photo by Sadie Gilliom
Thank you so much to everyone involved in the project and for providing the turtle program with such a unique and representative structure! Thank you to Mr. Carley for your initiative, expertise, guidance and skill building! Thank you to inmate Burham for your beautiful artwork! Thank you inmate Noblin for your leadership skills! Thank you inmates Gronholz, Torres, Gosney, Wharton, Easton, Ausen, Feltus, Jackson and Link for all of your hard work! Finally, thank you Superintendent Cole and all other staff involved for your support of this project!
This shed is currently used to store turtle supplies, but in the future it will also serve as a cricket house. CCCC and SPP are currently searching for the best form of green energy to use to power the turtle shed. We will keep you posted on this exciting new venture!
In late November, I had the pleasure of touring the Sustainable Practices Lab, or SPL, in Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. The SPL started up only two years ago—a large empty space save for 15 sewing machines. Today it is a hive of activity and productivity. The lab houses numerous sustainability programs fixing and repurposing all kinds of donated and reclaimed materials. The SPL employs 139 inmates and has donated to more than 88 community organizations in the area. Astounding!
I will share a photo gallery of the first half of my tour in this blog, and the second half in a week or so; there is too much to cover in one posting.
The exterior of the Sustainable Practices Lab (SPL) provides little hint of the bustle and color it contains.
This is the SPL Learning Center. All the prison’s televisions are repaired here (saving about 12 TVs a month from the landfill), and the resident TV shows TED talks. Mr. Thang is the self-taught electronics technician; Rob Branscum, the corrections specialist who oversees the SPL, says Mr. Thang can fix anything!
An inmate started an aquaponics program in spring, 2014. Now they are in the “proof of concept” stage, aiming to raise 700 heads of romaine lettuce each week. Waste water from the fish tank filters through a bed of tomatoes and pumpkins where ammonia turns into usable nitrogen…
…then the nutrient rich solution passes through the roots of hundreds of lettuce plants. These romaine are only a few weeks old; by 6-8 weeks they will be ready for the prison kitchen.
This is the bike and furniture repair area of the SPL. Technicians repair and customize chairs for hundreds of corrections staff, saving thousands of tax payer dollars every year–technicians throughout the SPL told me with pride that they are motivated to save tax payers as much money as possible.
A collection of wheels will be put to use to refurbish reclaimed bicycles; once the bikes are fixed up they will go to children and adults in the outside community.
An inmate technician who goes by the name Turtle renovates signs for state agencies. He said, “We are much like this wood. We have our issues…the SPL is going to take the time to bring the good out, invest the time. Return us back to society in better shape than we came in.”
Another quote from Turtle: “The Sustainable Practices Lab is an avenue; it gives us the psychological tools to choose to do the positive.”
The SPL vermicomposting program hosts 9 million worms. They compost one-fifth of the prison’s food waste: 2,500 lbs every week is transformed from garbage to the highest quality soil amendment.
An inmate technician in the vermicomposting program hand sifts worm castings.
Thank you to Rob Branscum for starting the SPL, and for hosting the tour. I suspect that the lab’s success can be credited to Mr. Branscum’s belief in inmates’ abilities and creativity (and, of course, that he has the support of many others in WA corrections). Incarcerated men have been given a workplace in which they can thrive!
Just like many of us head south to escape the cold dark winters of the Northwest, so do butterflies! The Pacific Northwest Monarch butterfly population is thought to overwinter in coastal California and possibly central Mexico. This species is sensitive to fir tree and milkweed declines, and past research suggests that our butterflies are having difficulty making it to their ultimate destination each winter. The current extent of the Washington population’s migration and wintering area is largely unknown.
The Santa Cruz California Monarch Aggregation. Two butterflies released just 4 days apart in August from Yakima, Washington traveled 675 miles (at least) to this same overwintering site!
Dr. David James, an associate professor at Washington State University (WSU) is studying this migration to learn more. In collaboration with the Washington State Penitentiary (WSP) in Walla Walla, volunteers and inmates raise thousands of Monarch butterflies to be tagged and released every fall. Each butterfly carries a small, light-weight sticker showing an ID number and an email address. After release, they wait until a stranger in the south makes contact to tell them where their butterflies have landed.
Washington State Penitentiary Monarch Butterfly Rearing 2012
David James explaining monarch biology to inmates at WSP.
On November 22nd an observer counting Monarchs in Goleta, California found a butterfly that was tagged at WSP. Goleta is 825 straight line miles from Walla Walla! This is the longest travel distance recorded for a Washington Monarch making this the most important re-sighting to date! Previous recoveries proved migration only as far south as San Francisco.
One of the 50 monarchs released from Yakima in October.
This is a great example of how the Sustainability in Prisons Project (SPP) model of collaborative partnerships with prisons allows multiple partners to participate in conservation efforts that reach far beyond Washington State. SPP staff at The Evergreen State College would like to congratulate WSU and WSP on this great achievement! We look forward to learning more about where our Monarchs travel in the coming years. To track the Monarch project yourself, follow their Facebook page.
Travis Turley, Roots graduate and graduation speaker, poses in front of CRCC’s Roots of Success banner after graduation. Photo by Joslyn Rose Trivett.
Coyote Ridge Corrections Center (CRCC) graduated 16 Roots of Success students November 25th, 2014. Empowered by what they’ve learned in the course, these inmates were excited to share their experiences at graduation and are ready to become more involved in the sustainability of their facility. Graduation speakers Travis Turley and Kuoy Chhong discussed how the class changed their views on environmental problems. Chhong cited a teaching of the First Nations, “we are the protectors of the Earth.” An avid snowboarder, Chhong wants to be more active in saving our winters to protect the snowpack.
CRCC’s most recent Roots graduates: Kuoy Chhong, Christopher Edwards, Edwin Edwards, Seth Fulmer, Richard Johnson, James Lees, Neil Mitchell, Andrew Quinn, Jayson Smith, Travis Turley, Kimothy Wynn, and Jeffery Willis. These inmates successfully completed the Roots of Success Environmental Literacy Curriculum where they learned about a variety of environmental issues and prepared for re-entry into the green economy. Photo by Joslyn Rose Trivett.
Next, Turley spoke of a common goal for humanity: “a better life and sustainable future.” He referred to environmental challenges and said that to him, “this knowledge meant nothing. It’s not that I didn’t care, I just didn’t know enough.” Armed with new insights gained through Roots, Turley says he now has, “a chance to hope and a chance to change people like ourselves.” After Chhong and Turley’s speeches Joslyn Trivett, SPP Network Manager, and Christina Stalnaker, SPP Roots of Success Coordinator, gave a virtual tour of SPP throughout Washington State. Students were curious about existing sustainability projects at CRCC and had questions about what future programs for the institution might be.
Roots of Success Instructor Jason McDaniels welcomes graduates and guests to the ceremony. Photo by Joslyn Rose Trivett.
During SPP’s “peer to peer” planning event in June, education and culture change was one of the top three priorities voted for CRCC’s sustainable programming. Educating inmates on environmental literacy through programs like Roots of Success is but one step towards that goal. CRCC is the nation’s first LEED Gold prison, and since the structure itself is already so sustainable it presents a unique challenge to find ways to improve.
Thomas Brown, Derrick Martin-Armstead, Jason McDaniels, Jay Powell, and Eugene Youngblood, CRCC’s Roots of Success Instructor staff, stand in front of their new SPP banner. Photo by Joslyn Rose Trivett.
Offenders are excited about sustainability and have requested to be a part of CRCC’s Sustainability Committee. This committee is charged with implementing sustainable initiatives throughout CRCC’s campus. The first joint staff-inmate meeting will be in January 2015. We are excited to hear what ideas arise and how recent Roots graduates will be putting their newly acquired knowledge into action!
Christina Stalnaker, SPP Roots of Success Coordinator, and Chuck Hudgins, Correctional Industries Food Group Statewide Sustainability Manager, talk about sustainability project plans and ideas after graduation. Photo by Joslyn Rose Trivett.
Congratulations goes out to all staff and inmates involved in the success of this latest cohort!
When I signed up to present at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) conference, I had no idea what was in store. Then October rolled around and I found myself on a 140 mile bike ride from Olympia to Portland, in the name of sustainability.
I wasn’t alone. Along the way, I had encouragement and support from a small group of my fellow environmental studies graduate students, including Lindsey Hamilton, the SPP Taylor’s Checkerspot Butterfly Coordinator. When we signed up to present at the conference and committed ourselves to the bike ride, it was summer and we imagined a lovely jaunt. Unfortunately, October weather in the Pacific Northwest isn’t quite as favorable for a long bike trek, and our trip was cut short only 20 miles outside of Portland by 45 mph wind gusts and steady rain. Lindsey made a valiant effort to stick it out to the very end. She laughed as a headwind made even the down hills a struggle and gusted leaves into her face, but finally relented that conditions had become too scary. We made it to Portland feeling exhausted but accomplished, and—most of all—motivated!
Lindsey and Tiffany enthusiastically on their way to Portland. Photo by Nick Wooten.
Spreading the Word
We immediately immersed ourselves in the conference. Lindsey and I participated in the poster session and shared SPP’s model with many interested students, faculty, and staff from international universities and colleges. We presented on our experiences of being both graduate students at Evergreen and program coordinators with SPP. Many people who attended our presentation had never heard of anyone doing work quite like SPP, and they took ideas back to their campuses to share.
Lindsey and Tiffany arrive at the conference, bikes and SPP gear in hand.
The Way Home
I left the conference and Portland with a new state of mind. My own legs and willpower had gotten me so far, further than I ever thought possible, and in the process I had reduced travel emissions in a real way. On the train back to Olympia, I jotted this down in my journal, hoping to always have a reminder of this wonderful trip:
I’ve never felt such an attachment to an inanimate object like I do with my bike now. We’ve seen so much together, struggled together, explored Portland and the WA roads together. It has been an interesting 6 days of traveling without a car, from Olympia to Portland, finding my way around the city and public transit, and now back home. I’ve realized that we are capable of far more than we usually give ourselves credit for, and sometimes it just takes being in a situation where the most convenient option isn’t an option to push our choices in the right direction.
I feel refreshed and somehow stronger in myself and I’m done with those excuses for not living life by example as a true environmentalist. I’m done talking the talk but not pushing myself to lessen my impact on this planet as much as I can. I won’t be perfect, because we all have our vices, and it is a continuous process of learning and growing. But I am definitely approaching things from a different mindset now. Let’s change the world together and live in a way that makes us feel good about our choices and empowers us to recognize how much we can actually change in the world and in ourselves.
Something Annie Leonard said at the conference really hit me. She talked about how we make decisions based on our identities- how we view ourselves and how we want others to see us. We are often trapped in the identity of “powerless consumer” in our current society and that often influences the choices we make and the options we see ourselves as having. Instead, if we switch our identity and work towards recognizing when we are making decisions with that mindset and change it, we feel more empowered and start viewing our actions as self-possessed based on personal identity and not society-pressured identity. Instead of feeling powerless, we can start seeing ourselves as change-makers, movers, and citizens, and that will ultimately change the way we view our options and the way we make decisions. It is never an easy thing to recognize and shift these things in ourselves but I’m so pumped to work on this self-transformation until it becomes so typical that my mindset and actions automatically encompass this.
It is changes in myself like this one that makes me so thankful to work with the Sustainability in Prisons Project. The work I’m involved with as the SPP Lecture Series Coordinator constantly inspires growth and realizations that weren’t present in me before.
I wonder how Annie Leonard’s message relates to the inmates in SPP programs. Does being involved bring about a new identity for incarcerated people? Do they see themselves as stewards, environmentalists, scientists, and students instead of “just prisoners”? I’m excited to bring this new perspective to the SPP Science and Sustainability Lecture Series and hear what it means to the incarcerated students that attend our lectures and workshops!
Master Beekeeper Renzy Davenport of the Olympia Beekeepers Association and the Pierce County Beekeepers spent six Thursday evenings with a class of inmates and staff at Cedar Creek Corrections Center. At the seventh meeting, he certified all students as Apprentice Beekeepers. As far as we know, this is the first in-prison beekeeping certification program in Washington state, and we hope it will be the first of many.
A newly-certified beekeeper receives recognition from Renzy Davenport of the Olympia and Pierce County Beekeepers Associations. Photo by Fiona Edwards.
The classes conveyed all the fundamentals of beekeeping, including how to build up colonies without buying more bees. Renzy provided practical guidance on how to turn beekeeping into a business. At an earlier class, the students sampled several varieties of honey and learned how to create the more tasty varieties—no one was very interested in how to achieve a “buckwheat honey,” as they thought it smelled like wet dog, but the raspberry and wildflower varieties were popular!
For those at Cedar Creek in the spring, they will have the chance to work with the in-prison hives. During the winter months, the bees are quiet and cannot be disturbed, but starting in April there will be plenty to do to care for the bees and their hives.
The first class of certified beekeepers at Cedar Creek Corrections Center pose with their certificates. Photo by Fiona Edwards.
Many thanks to Renzy for donating his time to teach the program, and to all the students and administrative support at the prison. Thanks to Fiona Edwards for attending the certification ceremony so we could help celebrate this first beekeeping class.
Photos by Danette Gadberry, AA4 at Larch Corrections Center
An inmate at Larch Corrections Center (LCC) shows off spider plant babies from his collection of house plants.
This past spring, I received a letter from an inmate at Stafford Creek Corrections Center asking for support of program to bring house plants into inmates’ living units. While we were unable to make the program work at that prison, I have kept his proposal in mind: it seems an elegant and relatively simple way to “bring nature inside.” I have hoped that we would find a facility willing to pilot a house plant program, and now I discover that a pilot is already underway: Larch has house plants!
Larch Corrections Center (LCC) is a minimum security prison northeast of Vancouver, Washington, and the 40 acre campus is surrounded by National Forest land. I toured the facility for the first time last month and was impressed to see a wide array of sustainability programming, including large-scale composting and recycling (operational for ten years), staff-led waste reduction in the kitchen, and off-campus food production for a local food bank. When we visited a living unit, I was focused on seeing the cat program and missed the house plants. So glad to know about them now!
LCC was the first prison in Washington state to eliminate trash can liners, now standard practice in our prisons and saving the state thousands of dollars and resources. Once again, they are leading the way.
An inmate displays a variety of house plants next to his window; a cat toy is also visible.
An inmate displays a house plant in his room at LCC. The shelves behind him are for the feline resident of the room.
A cat in LCC’s feline program enjoys a high perch.
The frogs were released into their natural habitat with the hope of boosting the population of this struggling species. Sixty-four were reared by SPP inmate technicians at Cedar Creek Corrections Center (CCCC) while the remaining frogs were reared by zoo professionals at Northwest Trek. Late winter, biologists from WDFW gathered eggs from the wild and delivered them to the facilities where they were raised with protection from predation, disease, and habitat disturbance. Over the spring and summer the tadpoles hatched and developed into frogs under the care of zoo staff and inmate technicians.
The frogs seemed to anticipate their release. They jumped excitedly in their containers as they were carried down to the site. As the team gathered at the edge of the wetland, the sun broke through the clouds, as though to wish the frogs good luck on their journey into the wild. The frogs were released with time to adapt to their natural environment before the chill of winter sets in.
The release was an opportunity to enjoy the results of everyone’s hard work, coordination, and collaboration over the rearing season. The first frogs were released by SPP Liaison and CCCC Classification Counselor, Ms. Sibley. She popped the lid off the tub and the frogs sprang into the water. Most were gone in a flash, but a few were hesitant, staring at their new world for several minutes before springing into action. Throughout the release there were shouts of glee, handshakes, and smiles as all the frogs eventually hopped to freedom.
Sadie Gilliom encouraging the last few frogs. Photo by Lindsey Hamilton
It is important to acknowledge a few of the people that helped make this season successful. Thank you Fiona Edwards! Fiona completed her term as SPP’s Frog and Turtle Program Coordinator this season and trained me to take on the responsibilities of the position. I also want to acknowledge Classification Counselors Pickard and Sibley for the time and effort they invested to make the program possible at CCCC. As Mr. Pickard recently accepted a new job, Ms. Sibley capably stepped into the DOC Liaison role. We wish Mr. Pickard well in his new position and appreciate his contributions. A huge thank you to Mr. Nuss, the inmate technician working throughout the season to provide the excellent care that resulted in healthy and robust frogs on release day. Finally, thanks to Superintendent Cole for his continued, passionate support for the program.
Fiona Edwards giving a frog a pep talk. Photo by Sadie Gilliom
There are many other partners that help make the SPP frog program possible: Northwest Trek Wildlife Park, Woodland Park Zoo; Marc Hayes, Tammy Schmidt, and other staff at WDFW; SPP staff and leadership; and the many others who have contributed to the effort to save this valuable indicator species! Good luck Oregon spotted frogs of 2014! We wish you a successful and prolific future!
My name is Sadie Gilliom. I am the new Oregon Spotted Frog and Western Pond Turtle Program Coordinator as of August 19th.
I am excited to be a part of the SPP team and put my two great passions to work in one job: amphibian and reptile conservation and interpreting our natural world. I have always had a great love of amphibians and reptiles. I spent a great deal of my childhood watching red-legged frogs swimming in my pond, swimming with the rough-skinned newts in Shelton, WA, and watching turtles from my kayak on a lake in Michigan. Almost as much as I loved these adventures, I loved telling people about them. I have always enjoyed telling stories and using mind boggling facts to excite people about nature.
My passion for interpretation led me to become a member of the National Association of Interpretation and be certified as an Interpretive Guide. I hope to use the skills I gained in their programs to inspire stewardship in the inmate technicians at Cedar Creek Corrections Center (CCCC).
As well as my passions, my previous job experience has led me to feel at home in the world of SPP. Through zoo keeping at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, interpreting Pacific Northwest wildlife at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park, and volunteering for the Department of Fish and Wildlife, I have gained both experience and connections in the field. I am looking forward to continuing to work with these organizations, now as program partners, and I hope to help strengthen SPP’s link to these partners. In addition, I hope to pass my job skills to the technicians at CCCC.
I am excited to start my Master of Environmental Studies at The Evergreen State College and have a head start in becoming part of the Evergreen community by working with SPP. Although it is awhile before I will start to write, I hope to involve SPP in my thesis and, in doing so, strengthen the partnerships between Evergreen, the Department of Corrections, and SPP.
I am thrilled to continue on my new SPP adventure and will keep you all posted on new highlights on our frog and turtle programs at Cedar Creek Corrections Center.
Women from the Ohio Reformatory for Women and Northeast Reintegration Center graduate from Roots of Success Facilitator Training. This is the first time ODRC brought Roots to women’s prisons. Photo by Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
“Roots of Success was the core component that tied together our cultural change in environmental awareness. We had begun recycling and composting. We addressed energy and water conservation, but I knew we needed education to really reach the inmates. Roots of Success took our green initiatives to a new level; it led the change that allowed inmates to be part of the environmental awareness at SCC (Southeastern Correctional Complex). The passion I saw from the inmates was amazing.”
-Warden Sheri Duffey, the first Warden to bring Roots to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC)
In prison classrooms throughout Ohio, ODRC provides facilitator training for inmates to deliver Roots of Success, an environmental literacy curriculum. These facilitators will prepare fellow inmates for re-entry into the green economy. ODRC also leverages inmates’ new-found passion and environmental education to implement sustainability initiatives throughout their facilities. ODRC brought Roots of Success to its first institution in 2011. Leah Morgan, ODRC Energy Conservation & Sustainability Administrator, informs us that the program proved to be so successful that it is now implemented in 19 out of 26 institutions, with plans to expand into all facilities within the next year.
Lorain Correctional Institution recently hosted ODRC’s largest Roots of Success train-the-trainer course to date, including both men and women from their facilities. Photo by Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Morgan attributes the program’s success to their inmates, “Honestly, though, it wouldn’t have taken off the way it did without the passion of the inmates behind it. They LOVE this program. We have long-term offenders trained and certified to facilitate the program, so a) it is not incredibly staff intensive, and b) it gives them meaningful work that they don’t normally have an opportunity to have.”
You can see video testimony from two of ODRC’s original trainers here:
Video by Roots of Success.
Video by Roots of Success.
Both Tony Simmons and Willie Lagway are Roots of Success Master Trainers at the Southeastern Correctional Complex in Lancaster.
