Jul 3, 2008

Orange jumpsuits, 'green' mentality

County jail pitches in with its own environmental efforts

By Michael Manekin / Bay Area News Group

The "green" revolution has penetrated the fortified walls of the San Mateo County jail, taking the form of composting, recycling, energy efficiency and sporks.

That's right, sporks. Half-spoon, half-fork and 100-percent good for the environment, according to Sheriff's deputies.

Those multi-pronged wonders will replace the 3,000 disposable plastic spoons that once traveled daily from the Maguire Correctional Facility to the landfill.

Now, inmates will be issued a single spork upon entry. They must wash and re-use the utensil for every meal.

"You know what's funny?" said Sheriff's Capt. John Quinlan, who runs the county jail. "We have pretty serious criminals who are saying this is kind of cool."

Those criminals aren't just raving about their own personal sporks, according to Quinlan.

"The inmates are getting green efforts pushed on them 24 hours a day, and just through our lifestyle they're learning about environmental consciousness," he said.

Before the jail began composting its garbage several months ago, the facility sent 340 cubic yards of waste to the landfill each month. Now that monthly waste - enough to cover two football fields one inch deep, according to Sheriff's officials - gets composted, Quinlan said.
Jail officials have also begun to recycle pounds of cardboard and the dozens of wooden pallets that arrive weekly with the facility's food supply. Ongoing efforts to replace the jail's lighting with energy-efficient fluorescent tubes may be completed in about two months, according to officials.

Quinlan, who said he has earned the nicknames "Captain Carbon" and "Captain Green" among his colleagues, has also replaced the jail staff's Styrofoam dining ware with a compostable, potato-based material known around the facility as "Spudware."

The staff has responded well to the environmentally conscious changes, said Sheriff's Lt. Marc Dowdy. And many of the inmates have taken quickly to the new system, according to a handful of inmates dining on bologna sandwiches Wednesday morning.

"Despite the fact that we're in here, we're still members of society, and if we can do something for the environment before our re-entry - why not?" said Bobby Kang, 35, as he spread mustard on his sandwich with his reusable red spork.

"We were wasting a lot of spoons; it was a big waste," said Ken Watson, a 37-year-old inmate recently convicted in San Mateo County Superior Court for murder.

"This is something they should have done a while ago," Watson said. "Still, a lot of people say they'll want to go green, and the jail isn't just putting out a bunch of rhetoric. They did it."

Quinlan said that while officials may have trouble measuring a jail's ability to rehabilitate criminals, it's easier to measure changes made to benefit the Earth.

"This is one real hard tangible," the captain said. "That the jail is actually doing something good for the environment."