MONROE, Wash. - . Inmates at The Monroe Correctional Complex are earning their keep and learning new skills they hope to take with them when their time is done. They're growing their own food, they recycle household materials, they even train troubled dogs, and they're doing it all inside the walls.
They are tapping the built in workforce and creating trained employees at the same time.
It's a new philosophy that prison leaders and the inmates say is working. Rather than sitting around in the cell or watching television, inmates can learn how to grow tomatoes, or recycle a mattress.
It's part of a sustainable philosophy slowing seeping through prison walls and paying off big.
Last year inmates in King County recycled 36,000 mattresses and their business partner, Correctional Industries, hopes to double that next year.
Since beginning the program in 2004, prison officials say they have cut water usage and waste water by 50%. Power usage is also down. And according to both guards and inmates, all that fresh air and hard work is making for a more peaceful prison population.
One guard explained before the new programs, gang bosses divided up the prison population, now he says they are sitting down together and discussing jobs and projects.
To add a comment, please register or login.