By Brittany Gallagher, Graduate Research Assistant

SPP-Washington has grown at an unprecedented rate over the past year.  We have been busier than ever and have doubled the number of graduate students working out of our Evergreen offices.  We have started several new educational and job-training programs, have been the subject of national press attention, have presented at various conferences, and of course, have begun supporting new SPPs springing up across the United States.

There are many moving pieces involved in our operations: new and established partnerships evolve over time, funding sources change, and staff members join and leave the team for a variety of reasons.  This theme of dynamism runs throughout our organization, and may be understood as akin to ecological disturbance.  As in a dynamic and healthy ecosystem, changes in our organization make us stronger and more resilient (see our recent TEDx talk on this theme).

In this period of great growth and change, SPP wanted to pause and throw a little party.  We wanted to take a snapshot and capture the ideas and dreams of the team as it stands in June 2013.  As three SPP graduate research assistants recently finished their Master of Environmental Studies degrees at The Evergreen State College, they will be moving on from their positions with SPP at the end of the summer, making room for new MES students to work with the Project.  And Vicki Briggs, a highly valued staff member at the Department of Corrections, is retiring from her position as the on-site lead for the Oregon spotted frog-rearing program at Cedar Creek Corrections Center, welcoming Classification Counselor Anthony Pickard to take over.  This “think tank” or “crazy idea party,” as it came to be called, was our chance to capture the ideas of these folks as they move into or out of formal employment with SPP, as well as for everyone to dream big and think about what we’d all like to see for SPP’s future. 

Along with other innovative ideas, the party’s drawing group points out the benefits of sharks with laser beams for prison security.

We took over a room at Ramblin’ Jacks restaurant in downtown Olympia on a bright Friday evening and enjoyed some silly and serious thinking over hors d’oeuvres.  A “Big Idea Basket” made its way around the room, and participants scribbled their hopes and dreams for SPP on index cards, folding them and placing them in the basket.  Several times throughout the evening, three cards were drawn from the basket and the ideas were read aloud, with applause determining the winner.  Here are a few of the crazy ideas (reworded for clarity and context):

·         By 2020, there should be a prioritized and complete list of endangered species that can be raised in captivity by inmates. The top 5 to 10 of these should be priority conservation projects within corrections facilities.

·         By 2020, prisons should be creating sustainability kits for schools, homes, jails, government offices, college campuses, homes and more!

·         The next move of the SPP should be to provide an overview books to inmates, asking for their thoughts on sustainability programs. The inmates should have a say in what should happen next. 

With the help of some SPP staff who moonlight as thespians, we took a page from theater improv and played the “Yes, and” game.   Ideas generated through this positivity-only activity ranged from SPP expanding into youth rehabilitation centers, inmates finding the cure for colony collapse disorder, and SPP becoming its own degree-granting institution.

SPP co-director Carri LeRoy toasted graduating student Andrea Martin; interim Program Manager Joslyn Trivett toasted graduating student Dennis Aubrey; Program Manager Kelli Bush toasted graduating student Brittany Gallagher, and co-director Dan Pacholke toasted retiring staff member Vicki Briggs.

The final party game allowed folks to pick their own creative skills – theater, drawing, or writing – and join with others with similar talents to create an SPP-themed work of art within about 10 minutes.  The writing group wrote a limerick that went a little like this:

There once was an inmate in prison
Who taught his frogs how to listen
He sucked at compliance
But then he found science
And now he’s no risk for recidivism

The drawing group made a plan of a prison where economic, social, and environmental sustainability could be seen in every element. One of the coolest parts of the plan was that inmates and their families could live together at a prison facility. A school was on the grounds for children, and this also allowed for meaningful activities like gardening to be completed with children and partners.

The group of actors created a skit about the prisons of the future where inmates are partners in groundbreaking scientific research. One of the major accomplishments of prisons was to bring back long extinct species, like dinosaurs.

While at times quite silly, it was a challenging exercise to think really big about the Project. Thinking creatively about how much potential inmates and correctional institutions have to make big changes to the environment and society was empowering and fun. Some of those ideas may seem crazy, but inmates raising frogs and butterflies definitely seemed crazy just five years ago. We can’t wait to see how SPP grows and expands in the next five years!

SPP thespians act out how prisons can contribute to amazing scientific achievements.

Poem by Michael Brown

Introduction by Carl Elliott, SPP Conservation and Restoration Coordinator

While working with the dedicated prairie crew from CCCC, the spring quickly blows by and work is often performed in hints of hot summer weather. The crew has ably taken on a wide range of tasks on the prairies, and at the conservation nursery and seed production farm. Staff from WDFW, WDNR, SPP and CNLM have been enjoying sharing information and skills. The work presents a steep learning curve in botany, ecology and nursery production. Not only has the crew been learning skills, also the work for conservation and service to ecological restoration has inspired one technician to create poems about service and restoration of Earth’s ecosystems:

Editor’s note:  Today’s post was written by an inmate and SPP lecture series attendee at Washington Corrections Center for Women.  On May 7, Lynne Weber from West Sound Wildlife Shelter visited WCCW with Yukon, a red-tailed hawk, and Remington, a turkey vulture, to talk to the inmates about wildlife rehabilitation.

WCCW’s Science & Sustainability Lecture Series: An Inmate’s Perspective

By Jain Cannard,* WCCW

I have attended several Sustainability in Prisons Project (SPP) lectures here at WCCW and always come away having learned some amazing facts. The lecture today on raptors was an experience of a lifetime! Seeing those incredible birds up close allows us to better understand how our ecosystem works, and that each part of the chain is important and vital.

Lynne Weber and Remington, a turkey vulture, visited WCCW on May 7 and presented to a record crowd of 73 inmates.

Your work here at WCCW helps to make these women better stewards of their community resources, better parents, and better citizens. That’s important work!

Each lecture is so different – I look forward to learning and researching the subject so I can imagine what the lecture will be like.  I am always surprised!

The surveys are also interesting. Who knew that opossums love slugs?! It’s good that SOMEONE loves them. The survey is a concrete way to ascertain how much we learn.

Thanks – please keep coming!

Wildlife rehabilitation specialist Lynne Weber and red-tailed hawk Yukon answered inmate questions about West Sound Wildlife Shelter.

Inmates had the opportunity to examine red-tailed hawk feathers during the presentation.

Lynne, Yukon, and Remington were a huge hit at WCCW! Photos by R. Stendahl.

*name used with permission

By Carl Elliott
Conservation and Restoration Coordinator

Inmate work crews from the Washington Department of Corrections (WDOC) have worked in the community for over 20 years. These off-site crews maintain the infrastructure along highways and at parks and public facilities throughout the state. The Sustainability in Prisons Project (SPP) recognized the value that the crews from Cedar Creek Correction Center (CCCC), could bring to restoration work on south Puget Sound prairies. Through a close collaboration with the Center for Natural Lands Management (CNLM), Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Washington Department of Natural Resources, a CCCC community crew of ten men dedicated to prairie habitat restoration just began their first week of work.

The new crew’s enthusiasm and eagerness to learn was evident from the first day. Many expressed a sharp interest in the cultivation techniques of prairie plants at the nursery site and the seed farm. We expect their learning curve will be steep. Restoration on prairies is a complex and interdisciplinary undertaking. The crew will gain and improve skills in a wide variety of techniques, including plant propagation, noxious weed control, seed production and processing, prescribed fire techniques, and plant re-introduction.

The staff, officers, and inmates at CCCC have shown incredible support for establishing the new crew. SPP and CNLM look forward to providing instruction, resources, and guidance to the crews so their work will be an enriching educational experience at the same time as they contribute to regional restoration efforts. The on-going conservation programs at WDOC facilities raising Oregon Spotted Frogs, Taylor’s checkerspot butterflies, and prairie plants, will provide a foundation of curriculum, restoration reference materials, and protocols that can lead to the crew’s success. The investment and optimism shared by all parties suggests a bright future for this new endeavor.