There’s no excuse not to green your lifestyle. Unless you’re locked up in prison, that is. Fortunately for inmates, some prisons are investing resources into greening their grey-and-white facades. What goes on in United States prisons matters, especially since the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world.1 The U.S. has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners,2 while having only 5% of the world’s total population. One percent of American adults are locked up. Due to rising incarceration rates, most prisons are broke and overcrowded. For example, California’s penitentiaries have a total capacity of 100,000, but they hold 170,000.3
Even with budget and crowding challenges, some prisons are making notable environmental changes. Washington State is spearheading with a sustainable prisons program. Washington already has 34 LEED-certified prisons. The Coyote Ridge Prison in Connell, Washington is saving big money by going green. The prison now uses 5.5 million fewer gallons of water per year less than before and is saving about $370,000 in energy costs per year. This on top of reducing vehicle and fuel usage, reducing trash to landfill, composting garbage, growing organic vegetables and donating surplus to local food banks, among other sustainability and humanitarian efforts connected to nature, people, and animals.4
Sustainable prisons have also taken route in California, for example, Ironwood State Prison in Blythe, California. Ironwood Prison has been outfitted with 6,200 solar panels, which over 20 years will produce enough energy to power over 4000 homes and be the equivalent of removing almost 4000 cars off the road per year!5Blue Earth County Justice Center is the first jail in Minnesota to receive LEED certification based on its use of geothermal heating, natural lighting, energy efficiency, and other sustainability factors.6
Sustainably constructed prisons improve inmate health and prison security, according to Ken Ricci, who heads the sustainability committee of the American Institute of Architects’ Justice Architecture group. Ricci says:
There’s a recognition that sustainable, or ‘green’ design, is actually a plus for a population that’s confined 24 hours a day. Environment cues behavior. If you treat people like animals, they behave like animals. If you treat them like human beings — that is to say, there’s daylight coming in, the noise level is at a normative level — therefore your adrenaline level goes down, therefore your stress level goes down, the inmates feel safer.7
To further improve inmate welfare, some prisons in Washington (in collaboration with Evergreen State College) are offering environmental education as part of the Sustainable Prisons Project. The project’s mantra is “doing good while doing time.” The project gives inmates the opportunity to rehabilitate troubled dogs, contribute to conservation research, rear endangered frogs, propagate prairie plants, and some even get beekeeping training!8 Providing inmates with a green-collar education may help them secure jobs after they leave prison and keep them from landing back behind bars.
Prisons Around the World Getting Green
Prisons outside the United States are also working towards sustainability. Hong Kong’s Lo Wu Prison, which opened in August 2010, features a green roof, solar panels, natural lighting, and high ceilings to enhance ventilation. The prison is so nice that the government has been criticized for doing more for the prisoners than for the city’s seven million law-abiding people. The $200 million facility houses some 1,400 inmates.9New Zealand’s Rimutaka Prison is reusing old metal shipping containers to make prison cells. The project saves money too—a remodeled container cell costs about $53,000 to $63,000, which is about half the cost of a conventional cell.10
India’s Tihar Central Jail is home to over 11,000 inmates, which is twice its capacity. Even so, the prison’s director is dreaming green. The director plans to reduce the prison’s $1 million annual electric bill by building biogas plants, installing solar panels, and enforcing mandatory electricity-free hours (7-9am and 3-5pm in the winter months, when fans aren’t needed because the heat doesn’t rise above 120 degrees Fahrenheit like it does in the summer). The prison will also recycle and harvest rainwater. And it looks like most of that might actually happen, thanks to government funding.11
Perhaps the greenest prison in the world is Norway’s Bastoey Prison, which has no locks, no cells, and no barbed wire. Situated on a lush island, the prison is home to about 115 prisoners, including murderers and rapists. “Inmates live in houses … and are responsible for the care of about 200 chickens, eight horses, 40 sheep and 20 cows. They also tend the fields, pick berries and fish on the prison’s 30-foot boat,” according to MSNBC. Prison director Oeyind Alnaes says, “Living in an environment that gives them individual responsibility, challenges and demands … can motivate inmates to change their behavior … Our job is to create the best possible development opportunities for the individual, and lay the foundation for possible changes.” An inmate serving time for drug smuggling says, “”When I got to Bastoey, it was like I got air under my wings.”12
Learning how to respect the environment and fellow human beings—what if that that was the goal of every prison sentence?
