Green Prisons

“Do the world’s incarcerated have a responsibility to save the planet? The Washington State Department of Corrections seems to think so.” The Independent on environmentally friendly prisons: “This week, the US Green Building Council awarded the department North America’s most prestigious environmental award—a plaque for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design—for a 21-building, medium-security extension at its Coyote Ridge Corrections Centre in Connell, a small city in the state’s Franklin County. … The prison’s facility manager, Glenn Jones, told reporters this month the jail had performed ‘better than we hoped’. He described how its laundry system reduced reliance on a local aquifer, and how a rubbish recycling programme had cut the amount of waste produced by a half, impressing local legislators.”