Prisons take fresh look at conservation

State emphasizes sustainability at institutions

By Adam Wilson | The Olympian • Published June 30, 2008

• Comments (0)

Washing the inmates' laundry in cold water, composting kitchen waste and collecting rain water are holding down costs to both the taxpayer and the environment, says the Department of Corrections.

The state's 15 prisons have seen some successes in the last four years:

• 23 percent less waste sent to dumps

• 18 percent less vehicle fuel used

• 1.5 percent less energy use per square foot

• 40 percent increase in recycling

"It's like a lot of other things. It's where the light shines. There's some unexpected gains when you start going down the road on sustainability," said Dan Pacholke, the department's facilities administrator for Western Washington.

Inmates and staff at Cedar Creek Corrections Center have headed some of those efforts, particularly in water use and gardening.

The 400-inmate center near Littlerock saves $4.64 per-offender, per year by using collected rainwater to irrigate its gardens, said Jerilee Johnson, local business adviser at the work camp.

And the gardens save $15.15 per offender, per year in food costs, she said.

There's a line to get work in the center's composting and garden program, said Jeremy Wilcox, an inmate. And the fresh vegetables make for better lunches, he added.

But not all of the changes have been popular with the inmates.

Washing clothes and bed sheets in cold water requires adding a chemical sanitizer, and the whites don't come out as bright as they would after a hot water wash, said Hisami Yoshida, the superintendent at Cedar Creek.

"I have to fight to keep that. They want to go to hot water," she said.

Laundry facility supervisor Larry Lipp couldn't say how much hot water was saved by switching to cold water wash, but he noted the facility has a 600-gallon hot water tank, and goes through 500 to 700 pounds of laundry a day.

The center has also pushed turning lights off when possible and turning the inmate's heat down.

"That wasn't popular in the winter time," said Johnson.

It can't get too cold, either in the inmates' cells or at the sink faucet -- the facility must meet health codes.

And in a prison, some lights have to be on all the time.

The prison systems' environmental gains have not been as much as hoped for in some cases. Electricity and natural gas use has gone down per-square-foot at prisons, which accounts for expanding facilities.

But the in-state prison population has decreased slightly, and energy use, when measured per-offender, went up by 5 percent.

The Department of Correction's goal is to reduce energy use by 10 percent, compared to 2003 levels.

Some centers have met that goal, including the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor. But total energy use in prisons is up 3.9 percent, to 402 million kilowatt hours in 2007.

Pacholke acknowledges some of the easiest steps already have been taken.

"It gets a little bit difficult. If you're going to do a composting site at Monroe (Correctional Complex), you're talking 2,000 to 3,000 pounds of materials every day," he said.

Handling that amount of waste would take at least a $500,000 facility, he said.

But investments like that will pay off for taxpayers in the long run, reducing garbage bills, he added. "We can do more from an environmental economics direction, because not only is it good environmental policy, it's good financial policy."

Adam Wilson covers state workers and politics for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-753-1688 or awilson@theolympian.com.