By Education & Evaluations Coordinator Brittany Gallagher

Planète Grenouille (“Planet Frog”) is an exhibition running this summer at the National Natural History Museum in Paris. To create the exhibit, photographer Cyril Ruoso visited frogs living in extreme conditions around the world, including SPP’s Oregon spotted frogs at Cedar Creek Corrections Center.  Now his work – and SPP’s frogs – are on display for all to see in Paris!

A tree-lined walkway leads up to the main museum building, with a fence separating the walkway from the extensive Jardin des Plants, an impressive teaching garden with plants from all over the Francophone world.  It is along this fence that Cyril’s photos are found, larger than life.

Metamorphosis:  “As a tadpole becomes a frog, the prisoners, ostracized from society, transform themselves through a project called “Sustainability in Prisons”.  Little by little, they learn to become useful again, and accompanied by these frogs, reconstruct themselves.”

Many people pass by these photos each day – admission to the Jardin des Plants is free to the public!

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

Editor’s note: Today’s blog post was written by an instructor in the Roots of Success program at Washington State Penitentiary (WSP) in Walla Walla. Roots of Success is an environmental literacy curriculum used nationwide that has just been implemented at four Washington DOC facilities, including WSP. Interested inmates are trained as instructors in the curriculum. With staff supervision, they teach classes of their peers about a variety of environmental topics. 

“Root View”: My Experience as a new Roots of Success Instructor
by Michael Oakes, Roots of Success Instructor

What the heck is “Environmental Literacy” anyway? That’s an expression used a lot in the descriptions of the Roots of Success program. My assumption, as I signed up to become an instructor, was that it was like being “computer literate,” and that turned out to be pretty much on mark. The rest of my assumptions about the program were pretty quickly demolished when I stepped into the day-long instructor course, taught by Dr. Raquel Pinderhughes. I assumed this was likely to be a feel-good icing of basic information dumbed-down to be accessible. In reality, it turned out to be a re-packaged post-graduate curriculum. I assumed we would have a harried mid-level instructor basically providing an official stamp on a diploma-mill, and instead I found a professional, exacting teaching methodology taught to us by Dr. Pinderhughes herself.

Though I was pleasantly surprised and impressed, a question remained: Would inmate students connect with the material? Would this represent nothing more than yet another time sink for people trying to burn time any way they could?

My first indication that I was not alone in seeing the value of Roots of Success was in speaking with my fellow instructors, who came from a variety of backgrounds and had a broad range of views about world politics. Every one of them found some area of the curriculum where they connected and developed genuine passion. That provided some reassurance.

The next milepost came with my preliminary introduction to our students. As we spoke about the curriculum and how it would mesh with the greater sustainability program here at WSP SPL (Washington State Penitentiary’s Sustainable Practices Lab), I heard one guy say, “I never thought I would get jazzed about what earthworms can do.”

The author instructs fellow inmates on the first day of Roots of Success classes at Washington State Penitentiary. Photo by R. Branscum.

In speaking with them about seeking “green” jobs when their sentences are served, more than half of the students were immediately enthusiastic about the idea of work where they might be earning the same wages they are used to, but wherein they go to work every day knowing that they are working toward a cleaner, greener, more sustainable world.

Most of the students come from backgrounds flavored with despair and hopelessness, and the challenges to the environment can sometimes feel pretty desperate indeed. ​Roots of Success​ brings that key second component that has been missing in the worldview for most of us. It lights a path toward hope. It paints a picture of a conflict that, for once, is not only winnable, but a conflict that will have no losers at all. In that sense, the first “Root” of success is seeing the difference that even a pretty simple guy can make in a world where earthworms and honeybees are our fellow troops.

Editor’s note: The following is a short but illustrative contribution from an inmate gardener at Cedar Creek Corrections Center.

I was offered the job of turning a disregarded field of weeds, rocks, and clay into a garden.  I had no prior knowledge of horticulture, but I accepted.  Between starting and now it has become more than a job.  It is almost an avocation.  I realized that sustainability is integral to a healthy society, so I began researching and applying this knowledge to my soon-to-be oasis.  I am grateful to the universe for the opportunity.

Inmate gardeners tend to Cedar Creek’s garden. Photo by Shauna Bittle.

Food from the garden at Cedar Creek Corrections Center is used to supplement the diets of the facility’s 480 inmates. Photo by Shauna Bittle.

Perspectives from an Inmate Service Dog Trainer at Cedar Creek Corrections Center

by Thurman Sherrill, Cedar Creek Corrections Center

Editor’s note: Today’s post was written in early October 2012 by an inmate at CCCC who has been involved with the dog-training program there.  All SPP prisons in Washington have similar programs.  Benefits of these programs include the therapeutic value and increased responsibility that comes with working with animals and a connection to the community at large through service.

Hello readers. My name is Thurman Sherrill. I am a primary dog handler for the Brigadoon Service Dog Program here at Cedar Creek Corrections Center. Along with the secondary dog handlers we are all responsible for the training, nurturing, and well-being of each service dog. Our training consists of basic commands such as “sit”, “down”,  “stay,” “go in,” “kennel,” “loose leash walking,” and “come” just to name a few.

Recently, I trained my dog Donner to read basic commands of “sit” “down” and “stand” without verbal communication. Before Donner, my secondary trainer Don Glaude and I had a dog named Duke. He was a wiry little fella, but easy to train with the proper treats.

The behavior I was most impressed with in Duke is that we taught him to turn on a light switch, a trick he aced 9 out of 10 times.

From a personal standpoint, this program is not only a chance for me to give back to my community, but it has also given me a sense of pride and self-accomplishment. When I arrived here at Cedar Creek 7 months ago, being a primary dog handler was the furthest thing from my mind, until CO (Correctional Officer) Alberton asked me if I wanted to be in the dog program. There was not a long list of applicants putting in for this position, so at that very moment, I knew this was the task I wanted to take on because I welcome challenges. Since I entered this program along with my secondary, Mr. Glaude, we have helped graduate two service dogs, Boadie and Duke.

All of the primary dog handlers, along with the secondary trainers, work together as a unit and share all responsibilities equally when it comes to training and caring for these dogs. There is nothing better than the unity we share amongst one another, all coming from different backgrounds with different beliefs but with one common goal, which is to train these dogs and graduate them to the next level for more advanced training.

Our CUS (Correctional Unit Supervisor) Cheryl Jorban and our boss CO Alberton oversee the program to make sure that we  do our job properly, and also that the dogs receive proper medical treatment if necessary. We meet twice weekly on Mondays and Wednesdays to receive instructions from two professional Brigadoon Dog Trainers, Elizabeth and Denise, and they also evaluate the dogs’ progress along with ours.

The dogs we train will eventually be placed with veterans who may suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and/or Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI). I am blessed and very fortunate to learn the skills that I have learned, and at the end of the day I am proud to say that I will always keep this experience with me, and continue to give back, because it feels good, and it is the right thing to do.

Thank you for this opportunity.

     Cedar Creek Corrections Center Inmate Dog Handlers talk about their experiences in the program for a tour group in September 2012. Photo by Shauna Bittle.

          A Dog Handler and his trainee demonstrate the light-switch skill for a tour group at Cedar Creek Corrections Center. Photo by Shauna Bittle.