The NIC Green Corrections Initiative seeks to increase awareness among corrections professionals about environmental issues related to the practice of corrections and focus attention on the need to make correctional facilities more energy and resource efficient.
The NIC Green Corrections Initiative seeks to increase awareness among corrections professionals about environmental issues related to the practice of corrections and focus attention on the need to make correctional facilities more energy and resource efficient. The initiative also explores the feasibility of introducing green-collar job readiness training programs in facilities, assessing the capability of correctional industries to adopt ”green” practices, and identifying strategies to assess cost saving options for correctional agencies that operate self-sustaining facilities and programs.
The NIC publication, The Greening of Corrections: Creating a Sustainable System, provides a background for this initiative and highlights four main recommendations for the greening of prisons and jails.
- Recommendation 1: Create a Sustainability Work Group
- Recommendation 2: Hold a Retreat for Your Executive Team
- Recommendation 3: Implement Budget Savings Strategies and Offender Employment Opportunities
- Recommendation 4: Performance Management: Inspect What You Expect
The initial scope of the NIC Green Corrections Initiative included provision of technical assistance support for three states: Minnesota, Washington, and Maryland. These states worked to develop strategic plans for implementing or improving green corrections programs in their local area. A summary of the technical assistance results can be found in The Green Corrections Project: Action Plans and Lessons Learned. Project outcomes also included the creation of a community of practice to promote the use of green practices throughout country. From the community of practice and strategic plans, a framework for green corrections will be created and shared nationally.
The Green Corrections Challenge is one answer to capturing a wider array of opportunities. Through crowdsourcing, the Challenge calls on citizens, students, and professionals in criminal justice to contribute to the knowledge base of ideas available for being and doing "green"; in corrections.(content coming)
“This white paper describes the issues facing corrections policy and leadership as the impacts of climate change and its related consequences confront departments, agencies, and facilities in coming years. Not only will corrections have to manage the effects of more extreme weather and temperatures
"On November 21, 2014, the Green Corrections Symposium convened professionals from the corrections community, as well as partners including reentry professionals, energy specialists, and education and workforce development experts. During the Symposium, winners of the Green Corrections Challenge, a
This program "addressed Green Corrections and the Green Corrections Challenge; an effort to document what agencies are doing to support environmental improvements within correctional facilities". This endeavor is funded by the National Institute of Corrections (NIC).
What are viable strategies for cutting costs while protecting the public’s safety? Corrections can achieve some substantial cost savings in sustainability or greening strategies. This publication “provides correctional professionals with a framework to gain a general understanding of sustainability
This report is a great description of the three-phase Green Corrections project, sponsored by the National Institute of Corrections (NIC). The following sections comprise this publication: overview of the project; “The Greening of Corrections: Creating a Sustainable System”-the publication and its
This program seeks to increase environmental awareness among corrections professionals and focuses attention on the need to make correctional facilities more energy and resource efficient. This broadcast:
- Explores the feasibility of introducing green collar job readiness training programs
- Assesses
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The utilization of a web-based Reusable Case Management System (RCMS) by the New York City Department of Probation to send judges offender reports prior to sentencing hearings is described. Not only are considerable amounts of paper, ink, energy, etc. being saved, but the rate of on-time delivery of
The strength of this article is in its discussion of an often forgotten part of greening a facility-the use of environmentally safe cleaning products and practices. The Alameda County Juvenile Justice Center in San Leandro, California is the green facility that has achieved LEED (Leadership in
“A look at the past, present, and future of the Sustainability in Prisons Project in Washington state commemorating the 5th anniversary of the project's inception. The project is a partnership between the Washington State Department of Corrections and the Evergreen State College.”