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Lectures Captivate Offenders at the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW)
Posted by Graduate Research Associate Sarah Clarke
In September 2009 we kicked off a science and sustainability lecture series at the WCCW in Gig Harbor, WA. Included as part of a yearly Women’s Health Conference titled “The Mind, the Spirit, the Environment Maintained, Equals a Healthy Body Sustained,” our lectures there on Trees and Human Health as well as Toxics and the Environment started what has become a popular series for offenders at the WCCW. Now, 10 months into this series, we recently noted the diversity of presentations we’ve been able to offer at WCCW.
Sarah Clarke, Research Associate, speaks to offenders at WCCW at the conference held in September 2009
Each facility in the Washington Department of Corrections is a little different, and we adjust lecture series accordingly. From the start, staff and offenders at WCCW tasked us to find lectures that integrate the personal health aspects with the environmental aspects of sustainability. This unusual and challenging task has turned out to be very fruitful as it has led to a diverse mix of guest lecturers and topics.
Lectures have included such topics as Poetry and Sustainability, Yoga and Sustainability, Ethnobotany, and more traditional science and sustainability lectures like Nearshore Restoration in Puget Sound, Salmon in the Pacific Northwest, Beyond Waste in Washington State: Reducing Toxic/Solid Waste and Reusing Organic Waste, and Wolves: Endangered Species Ecology, Conservation, and Wildlife-Related Jobs. Future topics include Biology and Ecology of Brown Bears and Purple Martin and Western Bluebird Conservation.
Frequently during lectures we (SPP staff, inmates, and officers) reflect on the maxim “we will not fight to save what we do not love.” As organizers, we feel we have helped offenders not only understand the science of restoration, salmon, and wolves, but also to further their love of the plants and animals native to the Northwest. Offenders consistently show a deep level of curiosity as they ask insightful and unique questions, exhausting available Q&A time.
Growing Plants and Potential: Stafford Creek Nursery Project
Carl Elliott, one of our Graduate student Research Associates, has been documenting his work with the project since April. The following are a few of his entries.
Introduction
4/01/2010
Throughout the spring of 2010, the Cargill Fellowship supported the Sustainable Prisons Project staffing in the nursery at Stafford Creek Corrections Center. We wanted to create a learning environment where incarcerated men gain the knowledge, skills and confidence necessary to participate in the emerging green economy. The nursery project provides a framework to clearly explain important ecological principles related to sustainability. Additionally, the nursery skills provided in the training can be transferred to numerous other job pathways after the inmate’s release. Inmates also build significant confidence as they produce real products that will assist other agencies in restoring a threatened landscape. The concrete success in growing plants for restoration is inspiring for incarcerated individuals who have not often had many concrete successes in their lives. 
Seed Cleaning
4/18/2010
The Sustainable Prisons Project developed a curriculum for offenders curriculum for the offenders involved in the nursery program, which complimented the production schedule of the nursery. Before offenders could understand the importance of nursery work, they needed to understand the context of why restoration is needed on south Puget Sound prairies. We held a number of informal workshops this month where we cleaned seed or prepared the sowing flats and soil. This allowed a lot of time just to discuss restoration and humans impact on natural ecosystems. The offenders discussed and debated amongst themselves, questioning “what is the definition of ecological restoration?” This discussion led to lead to questions about why restoration is even needed. The South Puget Sound prairies are anthropogenic ecosystems, affected by human activities. Though soil, climate and biotic factors play a role in the ecosystem, the primary driver influencing the prairie ecosystem state is periodic fires, lit by humans. With a return to prairie burn regimes on South Puget Sound prairies instituted by The Nature Conservancy and Joint Base Fort Lewis McChord, the nursery project will be able to supply need plants and seed to return forb diversity to the prairies. 
Practical Nursery Techniques
5/19/2010
The offenders, DOC staff and SPP staff worked on practical nursery techniques this month. The details of cultivating wild plants provide a lesson in patience that growing that pansies and petunias do not. Wild plants do not germinate with the same regularity and consistency as cultivated plants and their germination and stratification protocols are not as well documented as the economically important cultivated species. This year over 380,000 prairie and riparian plants of 30 species are being sown, germinated and cultivated at Stafford Creek. Each species has unique stratification, handling, sowing and cultivation requirements. This diversity of protocols has presented challenges in communication and documentation and both offenders and staff have shown that they are up to the task. Everyone involved has learned there is both an art and a science to cultivating wild plant species. We have been greatly assisted by our partners at The Nature Conservancy of Washington, who have provided protocols developed at their Shotwell’s Landing Nursery. TNC staff came out this month to do a workshop and provide quality control to make sure that all the prairie plants are being grown to their specifications.
Plants Up and Growing
6/17/2010
Our nursery work has progressed well this spring. We are about one halfway through the sowing process. Most of the plants sown to date are slow growing and erratic germinators. Prairie forbs such as Lomatium nudicale, Lomatium utriculatum, Viola adunca and Castilleja hispida have germinated at rates around 20% and we should expect twice that rate over the next four to six weeks. The majority of plants will go into the restoration sites from October to January when the rains come (of course this year as of June, the rains have not stopped). The offenders are monitoring germination rates between the plants in the green house that have temperatures higher temperatures than the hoop house which also has a greater range of temperatures from daytime to nighttime. The process of detailed record keeping coupled with producing almost 400, 000 plants has been a challenge. SPP staff has provided templates and education on keeping accurate field journals to each offender. As a project, we hope to collectively create documented plant production protocols that would raise the inmate’s participation from simply labor to one of being active stakeholders in the restoration process. This is also providing interesting data that helps us understand which plants grow faster, in what environments.
Offenders take college credit at Evergreen
Posted by Graduate Research Associate Liesl Plomski
Cedar Creek Correction Center inmate, Charles Butts, recently completed a 2 credit research paper on photovoltaic cells with The Evergreen State College. Charles is our first incarcerated student to construct an independent learning contract through The Evergreen State College. Under the guidance of faculty sponsor, Peter Impara, Charles was able to author a paper on the history and current technology of photovoltaic cells. Charles has a background as an electrician and hopes to continue to study solar energy and to open his own business installing energy saving products upon his release. This accomplishment could not have been achieved without the support of Correctional Counselor, Marko Anderson.
Liesl Plomski (SPP Student & Staff), Charles Butts (offender and student), Peter Impara (Evergreen State College faculty) and Marko Anderson (Cedar Creek Corrections Center staff) celebrate as Marko finishes his coursework and receives college credits
Charles has opened to door for more incarcerated students to follow. An incarcerated student from the Washington Corrections Center for Women will begin an independent learning contract on recycling this summer, under the guidance of faculty sponsor, Karen Gaul. The Sustainable Prisons Project hopes to support more incarcerated students in the pursuit of sustainable knowledge in the future.
The Early Bird Gets the Worm
Posted by undergraduate research assistant Sarelle Caicedo
It’s 6 AM, and while most people are still sleeping at this point, this is the prime time of the day for bird enthusiasts. As an undergraduate senior, who truly enjoys the luxury of a good ‘sleeping in’ I (undergraduate research assistant, Sarelle Caicedo) recently gave up that luxury for a day to meet with vital Sustainable Prisons Project partners Jim Lynch, a Fish and Wildlife Biologist for the Fort Lewis Wildlife Program, and Gary Slater, research director of the Ecostudies Institute.
This meeting was a significant milestone of work to-date with the bird box project. The goal of the morning was to load Gary’s pick up truck with as many Western Bluebird boxes as possible so he could take the ferry up north to the San Juan Islands and deliver each one to environmentally concerned land owners who requested boxes, as well as the San Juan Preservation Trust.
Because of the stunningly large amount of donated lumber and the willingness of the inmates and staff at Stafford Creek, there was an excess number of Western Bluebird boxes produced! This outcome came as a surprise to all involved, and are SO pleased to have the extra boxes to distribute to individuals eager to support bird conservation.
Gary Slater showed up with his pickup truck, and on the passenger seat was a small cage with a blanket on it. Inside the cage was a male and female western bluebird, which he was going to take to the San Juan Islands to jumpstart the population. As we arrived at a storage unit near the Fort grounds, it was impressive to see the hundreds of built boxes in storage, ready to be delivered.
As we loaded bird boxes, Jim, Gary and I discussed the future of the bird box project, and that next time boxes are delivered, the whole team may travel together, so we can all see the project from its earliest stages of hauling lumber to the prisons, to its final stages of installing boxes on trees and upright structures. By ten AM the truck was fully loaded, Gary was ready to go, and Jim offered a brief tour of areas of the Fort where restoration projects are taking place.
It feels good to be a part of the early morning club!
Earth Day, Sustainable Prisons Project Style
Posted by undergraduate research associate Sarelle Caicedo.
Earth Day is here! People are often very creative in the ways they celebrate, and there seems to be no exception with Washington Corrections Centers. The Stafford Creek Corrections Center (SCCC) held their Earth Day celebration event on April 14, 2010, and the Sustainable Prisons Project was there.
About 10 different environmental organizations and businesses set up information tables in a large visiting room in the Corrections Center. This was the 3rd annual Earth Day at SCCC, and it was a great success. The inmates and the staff had very positive responses to the various information tables.
Greg Falxa explains a "bat condo," one of many constructed at Stafford Creek
Greg Falxa, a bat biologist at Cascadia Research, came to the event with Sarah Clarke and Sarelle Caicedo, Sustainable Prisons Project student Research Associates. Greg will be giving the May scientific lecture on bat biology and conservation on May 12 at SCCC, so this visit enabled him to promote his upcoming talk with inmates and staff and build enthusiasm. Inspired by the growing success of the bird box project, inmates are now constructing bat boxes (known by the inmates as “bat condos”), and Greg was able to display a recently built bat box.
Project Research Associates Sarelle Caicedo and Sarah Clarke with SCCC Superintendent Pat Glebe
Pat Glebe, Stafford Creek superintendent, was present, continuing to motivate and steer Stafford Creek’s efforts to be a leading practitioner of sustainability.
Next week, on April 28th, Graduate Research Associate Carl Elliott and undergraduate assistant, Sarelle Caicedo will be giving a joint lecture at SCCC, and they are very excited! The topic of the talk will be prairie plant conservation and conservation of the Purple Martin and Western Bluebird. This talk has been of keen interest to he inmates because they have been involved in hands on projects concerning both prairie plants and these two species of birds. Carl and Sarelle have worked together in the past, propagating plants with The Nature Conservancy, and feel that their joint talk will go well. Stay tuned for details next week on how it goes, and happy Earth week!
New Frogs Have Arrived!
Posted by Graduate Research Associate Liesl Plomski
Cedar Creek Correction Center kicked off their 2010 Oregon spotted frog rearing season in late March. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife delivered around 80 larvae from the Black River in Thurston County to the Prison. Since then the frogs have been moved from 6-quart containers indoors to a 300-gallon tank outside. Many of the tadpoles have begun metamorphoses and are developing front legs. They are developing much faster than last year. The inmates prepare a “Popeye” food mash of romaine lettuce, kale, and spirulina to feed to the tadpoles four times a day. We’re impressed by how quickly the frogs are growing and maturing; so far things are on track to match the success of the 2009 season.
Frog Project Receives Grant from Oregon Zoo Foundation
Posted by Graduate Research Associate Liesl Plomski
This April, Cedar Creek Correction Center was awarded a $4,375 grant from the Oregon Zoo Foundation to expand the Oregon spotted frog captive rearing program at the prison. This is the first time the grant has ever been awarded to the Department of Corrections, or to an institution that is not solely dedicated to scientific research. This will allow the prison to expand from the current capacity of 75 frogs to a future capacity of 300 frogs. Right now the project buys thousands of crickets which are shipped from Alabama – this grant will also help expand the cricket rearing area, which was started with $500 from the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Crickets are the main diet of captive reared Oregon spotted frogs after their complete metamorphoses (from larvae to early adult-hood).
In its first year of the project, Cedar Creek Correction Center reared 67 of 78 larvae to adulthood. They hope to use these funds to increase the number of frogs release back into the wild in the 2011 rearing season.
Bird Conservation Project Taking Flight at Stafford Creek Corrections Center
Blog post by undergraduate research assistant Sarelle Caicedo.
Purple Martins and Western bluebirds are two of the most charismatic birds of the Pacific Northwest. As the newest hands-on project of the Sustainable Prisons Project, inmates at Stafford Creek are constructing bird houses that will serve as habitats for the threatened Purple Martin and Western Bluebirds. The inmates have been enthusiastic about constructing the boxes and learning about the birds they are helping to preserve. To date, 16 Purple Martin boxes have been made and taken to Northwest Trek, where they will be installed and monitored for long-term conservation use. 150 Western Bluebird boxes have already been made and will soon be installed and monitored at various locations. Local lumber retailers (Tumwater Home Depot, Mary’s River Lumber Co., and Windfall Lumber) have donated all of the wood being used to make the boxes, making this project possible.
On April 28th, undergraduate research assistant Sarelle Caicedo and graduate research assistant Carl Elliott will be giving a joint educational lecture at Stafford Creek on Western bluebird and Purple Martin Conservation and Northwest prairie plant ecology. We are hoping that this lecture will increase interest in ornithology and the environment, and that this will kick start a series of future lectures given by undergraduates specializing in ecology and environmental studies at Evergreen.
Women offenders gather for health conference inside prison
Blog post by Graduate Assistant Sarah Clarke:
In September more than 100 offenders, correctional staff and guest scientists participated in the annual health conference at the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW). Titled “The Mind, the Spirit, the Environment Maintained Equals a Healthy Body Sustained,” the two-day gathering featured a fitness instructor, inspirational speaker, poet, chaplain and two faculty members from The Evergreen State College. Imagine the scene as we all committed to healthier lives through laughter, tears and even aerobics!
Dr. Frances Solomon, a toxicologist and visiting professor at The Evergreen State College, teaches inmates at the Washington Corrections Center for Women during the prison's annual health conference. Photo: Jeff Muse.
Led by Evergreen professor and forest ecologist Dr. Nalini Nadkarni, the second day kicked off with a multimedia presentation on the role of science in our lives, the importance of trees and emerging green-collar jobs. Dr. Nadkarni also announced our hope to initiate a butterfly-rearing project with the prison’s horticultural program and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Next up, toxicologist and watershed specialist Dr. Frances Solomon discussed the impact of toxic chemicals on the environment and human health, including illnesses such as breast cancer. Afterward, offenders were given the microphone to ask questions and express thanks during an insightful and heart-warming feedback session.
Offender feedback through surveys and interviews is essential to the Sustainable Prisons Project. Photo: Jeff Muse.
In my experience, WCCW is quite different from the men’s prisons in which most of our work takes place. Though it’s heavily secured, a gentler, family-like atmosphere pervades the facility. We hope that we honored that character and linked inmates to the world outside the fence where many have parents, siblings and children rooting for them to succeed.
Interacting with inmates and correctional staff as well as extensive survey feedback gave us a good direction for future activities. Our next presentation, led by yours truly, will be “Sustainability 101” in early December. Afterward, we’ll help the prison adopt goals and strategies for lessening its impact on the environment while improving the health of everyone who lives and works there.