Update:
Hi Everyone! Can't believe the summer has flown by so quickly. I woke up today to frost on the chicken pens and realized fall is firmly here and also that I haven't written a newsletter all summer long! So here is a quick update on the highlights of an extremely full summer:
Food Waste--Last time we wrote we had just started processing food waste and had diverted about 10,000 lbs. That process has been greatly improved and as of this last week we've processed over 160,000 lbs. That is a lot of food to keep out of landfills. The cool thing for us is that we can now say that we have gone to two institutions and built a system from the ground up and reached 100% food waste diversion. Pretty cool!
Curriculum--The other exciting thing we have going on is the Foundations in Composting curriculum that we helped write has been accredited at Evergreen College and we are teaching the first group of students! Class is going great and with support from SPP we are able to combine book learning with hands-on application. We recently received interest from another institution to send people here to get trained. This could be a big first step towards a statewide training program.
Project Expansion--Earlier this this summer we had a meeting with folks from DOC headquarters, SPP, local plant managers and Correctional Industries supervisors to lay out our grand plan. Our boss was in a motorcycle accident and was out for several months so it was pretty amazing to get this meeting and be allowed to present our ideas. Our proposal to create a statewide system for diverting food waste was met with tremendous positive feedback and at the local level we have been getting a lot of support. We have spent the summer expanding our project in a bunch of areas.
KEY POINTS
Point of Perserverance:
One of the really hard after effects of Covid is the removal of almost all programming from the prison system and the fact that it has been extraordinarily difficult to get it back. It kinda feels like the Covid lockdowns reminded some in DOC how easy it is to simply warehouse prisoners. This makes getting projects like ours up and running really tough because the attitude has just fundamentally changed, but we counter it with pure stubbornness and a refusal to quit.
Point of Practice:
We have been experimenting with chicken composting and it is going great! We built a bunch of compost bins in the chicken yard and have been burying Bokashi treated food waste. The chickens get in there and scratch around and it turns into amazing compost. We showed it to the people at our meeting and they liked it so much that they ordered us more chickens! We now have a flock of 49 birds.
Point of Peace:
One benefit of getting up so early is that we get to see the sunrise every morning. We take a break around 6:30 and treat ourselves to a little tiny bit of forest therapy.
THE PLANET
A recent AP article said that glaciers in Switzerland are seeing an accelerated rates of melt and it is an indicator that climate change is happening even faster than forecasted. Mobilizing the potential workforce within the prison system to join the effort in preparing for climate change seems more urgent then ever. (See Big Idea)
BIG IDEA
This summer I have been working through my MRP (Mutual Reentry Plan) and I made it on to the radar of an amazing person at DOC headquarters. She is working on reentry issues and came to meet with me a couple of times. We were talking about EARN and I brought up the idea of intentional communities for the formerly incarcerated centered around environmental industries. She was really impressed, validating our belief that there is a big solution to multiple problems in the intersection between incarceration and environmental issues.
FINAL THOUGHTS...
As I prepare to transition out of prison over the next couple of years I am blown away by the fact that there
is so little in reentry services that are specifically geared towards long term prisoner reintegration
and more convinced than ever of the need for EARN with multiple pathways to business ownership as well as
housing and a therapeutic community.
A couple of articles to check out:
The Appeal-June 05, 2023 - I'm Getting Out After Decades in Prison. But Prison Might Follow Me Home.
Atmos - Environmental Conviction