On October 27, 2010, former and current Sustainable Prisons Project Research Associates Liesl Plomski and Jill Cooper attended the South Sound Science Symposium on Squaxin Island where they represented SPP’s Oregon Spotted Frog Captive Rearing Project at Cedar Creek Corrections Center in Littlerock, WA.
The symposium provided an opportunity to network within the South Sound’s scientific community and spread the word about the great success SPP conservation projects have experienced in the past year. Plomski and Cooper presented a scientific poster at the symposium describing the Project, garnering interest in the Project from symposium goers.
The symposium proved to be a great outreach and learning opportunity for Sustainable Prisons Project staff and event attendees. “It was wonderful to see the wide array of cutting-edge environmental work being done in the Puget Sound area,” Cooper said.
On October fifth in Gig Harbor, Washington, Olympia resident Dick Meyer walked through the security gates of the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW) headed for the visit room. “When I worked here thirty years ago,” he said, “they didn’t have all this security.”
The reason for his visit? To bring fair trade education to prisons through the Sustainable Prisons Project’s Science and Sustainability Lecture Series, a program geared toward scientific education and sustainable practices.
A former counselor for WCCW in the early 1970’s, Meyer left social work to become a small business owner in the Puget Sound region. The founder of Traditions Café in Olympia and owner of The Antique Sandwich Shop in Tacoma, Meyer currently uses his storefronts and free time to promote fair trade partnerships and awareness.
Guest lecturer Dick Meyer demonstrates a Tibetan singing bowl inside his fair trade shop in Olympia, WA.
“I view talking about fair trade and doing outreach as something that’s motivating for me to do. Whatever opportunity to engage people in talking about values and relationships is important to me,” Meyer said.
Each month, the Sustainable Prisons Project hosts guest lecturers in three of Washington’s prisons to speak with offenders and DOC staff about topics related to science and sustainability. Speakers include scientists, engineers, environmentalists, farmers, business owners, and community activists, with topics ranging from bear ecology to sustainability in poetry.
Seated in a circle with DOC offenders and Sustainable Prisons Project staff, Meyer began his talk with a brief history of the fair trade movement. According to the Fair Trade Federation, of which Meyer is a member, fair trade is an economic partnership based on dialogue, transparency, and respect. Fair Trade organizations seek to create sustainable and positive change.
Stories about various products, such as clothing and chocolate, stimulated an hour-and-a-half long discussion between Meyer and the offenders about the issues surrounding fair trade. Having brought sample items from his stores, Meyer demonstrated what fair trade products look like and how the average person can go about finding and supporting such partnerships. Nearly all the products were hand-made by women cooperatives in developing countries.
Through the Science and Sustainability Lecture Series, the Sustainable Prisons Project seeks to connect lecture participants to the larger world of scientific research and conservation while introducing offenders to educational and employment opportunities they may pursue upon release. A large part of this involves presenting on lecture topics that have relevancy and meaning to the offenders’ current situation as prison residents.
Meyer discussed the connection he saw between the women sitting with him in the prison and those working across the globe in conditions and economies that fair trade is trying to change. “The information is not readily available about how much the rest of the world has to work to survive,” he said. “And to a certain extent they can’t control their own destiny. The message is not exclusively, but predominately, about women, and to the extent women inmates can empathize and understand; I think that at least one part of it becomes a shared empathy.”
For more information about fair trade, visit www.traditionsfairtrade.com.
In our last entry we wrote to tell you that funding for the Sustainable Prisons Project (SPP) was cut as a result of significant budget cuts within the Washington Department of Corrections (WDOC) and throughout the state. Since we received the news, Sustainable Prisons Project students and staff have been working hard to identify alternative funding sources.
We are pleased to report our first major success. The Evergreen State College (TESC) has provided “bridge funding” from reserves of the Academic Division. This will serve as a temporary bridge to give us “breathing space” through June 2011. It will provide enough support to: maintain our basic operations; provide one science lecture per month (rotated among our current corrections centers); support one graduate student; and initiate a green collar training program in arboriculture. It will also allow us to: maintain our website; connect with the media; and write grant proposals to foundations and individuals to further support and extend our work.
Our Co-leader, Dan Pacholke (WDOC), has extended the reassurance that the WDOC will continue to support this work with available staff effort, access to inmates and facilities, and guidance in shaping our program for the future. We have also been working with our conservation partners — at The Nature Conservancy, the Washington Dept of Fish and Wildlife, the Oregon Zoo Foundation, and the Department of Defense — to augment their current funding so that we can sustain our current commitments of raising endangered frogs, prairie plants, and rare butterflies to enhance regional biodiversity and provide training for inmates.
Despite this funding setback, awareness of our project expands. Just yesterday, we learned that our project has been featured on the website of the National Science Foundation – a piece produced by Science Nation, which was filmed at Stafford Creek Corrections Center this summer. It captures very well our vision of linking offenders with science and conservation directly, and the benefits that accrue to all involved. Here is the link: http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/science_nation/sciencebehindbars.jsp
During these difficult economic times, it has been warming to witness people stepping forward to help as much as they can. We have received hundreds of notes and responses to the WDOC termination announcement on our blog from people around the country and around the world, stating their support for the project, and their desire for it to continue. We will work hard to find ways to keep our program moving forward in the short and the long term.
Economic conditions at the national and the state level are increasingly difficult due to sharp drops in state tax collections. Responding to these lean times, Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire has instituted deep budget cuts. She recently enacted a 6.3% across-the-board cut to head off a deepening budget deficit
Over the past three years, the Washington State Department of Corrections (WDOC) has funded the Sustainable Prisons Project through a contract with The Evergreen State College. During that time, the WDOC has cut more than $220 million from its budget, frozen or cut more than 1,200 jobs, closed two prisons, slashed inmate populations, and cut the number of offenders on community-supervision probation.
On October 1, 2010, Eldon Vail, Secretary of the WDOC, announced a new 6.3% cut in its budget, which translates to a $53 million reduction. To achieve the savings, one prison will be closed, and 300 jobs will be frozen or cut. Employees will experience employee furlough days and cuts in pay. Inmates in larger prisons will be locked-down one day a month to reduce staff overtime costs. Drug treatment and education programs will be reduced.
Sadly – very sadly – the two-year contract for the Sustainable Prisons Project that began July 1, 2010 will be another casualty of this process. With one month of notice, WDOC funds that have supported our staff and students to carry out our activities will disappear. These activities include our science and sustainability lecture series, green collar job training, and conservation biology projects. Recycling, gardening, and composting will continue, as they have become part of regular DOC operations.
Our SPP group and The Evergreen State College are working hard to find alternative and bridge funding through grants and donations. Although there are some promising leads from the many people who strongly support our project, we have no guarantees for the future at this time.
We will keep our readers posted on this blog and through the media. If you have any suggestions or contacts that might lead to future support for this project, please contact our leaders (below). We are hopeful that our project will flourish even in these hard economic conditions.
Contact:
Nalini Nadkarni, Co-Leader, The Evergreen State College
nadkarnn@evergreen.edu
(360) 867-6621
Dan Pacholke, Project Co-Leader, WDOC
djpacholke@doc1.wa.gov
Kelli Bush, Project Manager, The Evergreen State College
bushk@evergreen.edu
(360) 867-6863
The long-term goal of the prairie plant nursery project at Stafford Creek Correction Center (SCCC) is to produce seed to be used in restored South Salish Sea prairie ecosystems. All of the plants grown at the SCCC nursery are planted out on Joint Base Ft. Lewis-McChord at the seed nursery production unit. Additional seed production beds are at Washington State Department of Natural Resources Webster Nursery. This month the offenders received hundreds of pounds of seed from this nursery to hand clean in preparation for the fall sowing season. The work provided an excellent opportunity to participate in the full circle of restoration activities.
Lupines were the genus of focus for this stage of the seed cleaning project. The Sustainable Prison Project (SPP) staff delivered bags of seed and chaff of Lupinus albicaulis, Lupinus lepidus, and Lupinus bicolor for cleaning. Cleaning these seeds is a satisfying activity because with a little work they produce a hefty amount of seed. Lupines provide important ecological services as nectar sources and larval food for the Puget Blue Butterfly (Icaricia iracioides blackmorei). They also facilitate the growth of other prairie plants by fixing atmospheric nitrogen. SPP staff led a workshop to educate offenders on the ecological contributions of lupines and basic seed cleaning protocols.
Using a cookie sheet to clean seed
The offenders created a number of unique means to process the seed with improvised tools that they had on hand. Large industrial cookie sheets were turned into shaker tables that allowed the larger seed to roll out and separate from the lighter chaff above. After that initial cleaning, other offenders used the hand sifters we provided to fine clean the seed. Using hand lenses, we identified larval and young adult seed weevils (Thychius germar) that were mixed in with the lupine seed, and dispatched of them humanely. Over the next month offenders are going to build seed screens in the wood shop so we can quickly process seed in larger quantities, and move on to processing wet seed such as Sambucus nigra ssp. cerulea and Viburnum ellipticum.
Posted by Graduate Research Associate Liesl Plomski
Offenders at Cedar Creek Corrections Center have been preparing their Oregon spotted frogs to be released in late September at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. In this process each frog must be weighed, measured, pit tagged, and photographed. Pit tags are little chips that are inserted under the skin which can be scanned to reveal an ID number. Following release into the wild biologists can recapture frogs, scan the tag, and identify individuals. Once they have identified an individual frog, scientists compare the frog’s weight and size prior to release with current weight and size. These measurements help the biologist assess the individual’s health and may provide an indication of their ability to survive in their natural habitat. If a frog has lost the pit tag, it is possible to identify them from their photo. Each Oregon spotted frog has a unique spotting pattern on its back. Preparing the frogs for release is one more way offenders at Cedar Creek are contributing to scientific research and assisting with the recovery of Oregon spotted frogs.
WA Dept of Fish & Wildlife Biologist Marc Hayes collecting data
Oregon spotted frog photo for identification post-release
Dr. Nalini Nadkarni received an Education Award from Washington Correctional Association for her innovative work as Co-Director of the Sustainable Prisons Project. The annual award recognizes “an individual or agency employed in academia, who has enhanced the success of corrections programs, or furthered the aims of corrections through excellence in education.” Established in 1913, the Washington Correctional Association (WCA) is a professional organization that serves as a forum for corrections. Nalini is honored to be recognized as the recipient of this year’s award, particularly as it highlights our continued effort to blend the lines between academia, science, and prisons.
Nalini at Washington Correction Association Awards
The nursery infrastructure (greenhouse, hoophouse, water, power) and the original garden area at Stafford Creek Correction Center is being moved across the central facilities area this month. At first this task may seem a bit demoralizing, deconstructing buildings and digging up growing plants to only leave empty space behind. However, the offenders remain upbeat and active, carefully tending to the transplants and picking out their favorite flowers and vegetables to relocate. The promise of more room for the gardens and nursery, as well as an updated infrastructure, is an added incentive to get them through the hard work. The cool maritime cloud layer that has been especially persistent this year helps minimize transplant shock for both people and plants.
Temporary Home for Prairie Plants
The moving process not only adds to the physical workload, but also has provided intellectual challenges for the offenders. A number of them have contributed to the design and layout of the new garden, as well as providing detailed design assistance with the greenhouse. They are making sure the internal drainage system is improved, the water supply system is more efficient, and that the movement of materials such as flats and finished plants takes less work and physical strain.
The staff and offenders have put in a lot of hours above and beyond the call of duty to make sure this late summer move is an opportunity and not a loss.
As part of the Sustainable Prisons Project (www.sustainableprisons.org), Cedar Creek Corrections Center is trying to raise crickets to feed their quickly growing endangered Oregon spotted frogs to ready them for release into the wild. They currently order crickets from Louisiana, which are shipped overnight to the prison in Littlerock, Washington. This is not only expensive; it also creates a large carbon footprint. The inmates have been experimenting with raising their own crickets and have had some success, but in order to feed 85 rapidly growing Oregon spotted frogs they need to expand their raising capacity.
This means they need more aquarium tanks. They are looking for tanks of 10 and 20 gallons (approximately 6 tanks of each size) and are gladly accepting donations. If you happen to live in the Olympia area and have an old aquarium sitting in your garage that you just don’t know what to do with and would like to support our project please contact Liesl Plomski or Jill Cooper. Your contribution will be greatly appreciated!
Liesl Plomski
Research Associate
Sustainable Prisons Project
The Evergreen State College
plolie07@evergreen.edu
Jill Cooper
Research Associate
Sustainable Prisons Project
The Evergreen State College
coojil27cr@evergreen.edu
Come see one of our student Research Associates participate in a panel presentation ….
As climate change and dwindling resources create mounting concerns, societies across the globe are turning to the foundations of sustainability to enlighten future decisions. On August 7, 2010 at the Capitol Theatre in downtown Olympia, WA, the Sustainable Prisons Project will take part in a panel discussion regarding sustainability and its implications for the future, following a screening of the thought-provoking film 2012: Time for Change, hosted by the Olympia Film Society. The film begins at 6:30pm with the panel discussion to immediately follow. This event provides an engaging opportunity to discuss how we as individuals can create sustainable projects and futures.
We invite you to attend, and encourage your comments and participation during the guest panel discussion. We’ll see you at the box office!
