Corrections_Today_May_June_2020_Vol.82_No.3

Disclaimer: This material is based upon work supported under a grant by the Rural Utilities Services, United States Department of Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recom- mendations expressed in this material are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Rural Utilities Service. The Virginia Department of Corrections is an equal opportunity provider and employer. F orklifts moving pallets of supplies, buses transporting offenders, contractors and vendors carrying tools and other goods – these are everyday occurrences at the prison sally port. Security staff conducts thorough inspections of every vehicle, package and person that enters or exits through the gates. They also heavily screen the facility garbage, including the facility’s food waste. At least once a day, the facility trash, often transported on a train of carts, makes its way through the sally port. Officers must inspect and prod through heavy, smelly bags, cans or dumpsters, to ensure that contraband, or more importantly, an escapee, isn’t hiding inside. Before the waste can leave the facility, it must be held through an offender count. Once count is cleared, the trash is hauled to a landfill. Annually, more than 30,000 offenders and 10,000 employees generate roughly 17,000 tons of trash in Virginia’s 43 correctional facilities. Security staff is responsible for collecting, hauling and inspecting this massive product in order to protect the facility and the public. This is not a pretty job, as more than half of this waste is food, which, after sitting over a 12-24 hour period, grows heavier and smellier by the hour. More im- portantly, the more time security staff spends inspecting the facility’s garbage, the less time they have for other, more pressing duties. Additionally, food waste generates pollutants and attracts pests, especially on hot summer days. The process is also very expensive. Wear and tear on the dumpsters and increasing landfill fees translates to a costly operation for facilities to manage, in dollars and staffing. The Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) spends more than $1 million a year on landfill fees. In addition, each facility rents dumpsters for rates that vary by size at a cost of $200 to $600 per month per dumpster. VADOC is fortunate to have an excellent agribusi- ness and food services program. Our agency manages 24 prison farms where offenders consume more than half of

the produce grown. Since we manage our own kitchens and menus, we have the flexibility to take advantage of special buys and farm products to save money. However, while VADOC grows and cooks its own food, it leaves disposal in the hands of outside vendors and landfills. This issue concerned the VADOC sustainability admin- istrator after several site visits, waste audits and data analyses revealed the extent of the farm to table to dump- ster connection. In 2016, the agency began a journey to develop a sustainable approach to food waste manage- ment by dialoguing strategies and seeking out grant opportunities to fund the program. Composting offers a low-cost solution for facilities with the space, farm equipment and offender workers to manage the program. Federal grant helps provide solutions For the past eight years, a few VADOC facilities have utilized composting as a waste management tool, primar- ily at a plant located at State Farm Correctional Center and facilities in the Richmond area. The agency decided that composting food waste on-site should be the waste management practice at all facilities with farms. Com- posting offers a low-cost solution for facilities with the space, farm equipment and offender workers to manage the program. In addition, compost is an excellent agri- cultural amendment as it adds organic matter to the land and improves water retention, thus creating stronger and healthier soils. In the fall of 2017, an opportunity to grow the com- posting program presented itself through the Solid Waste Management Grant Program from the United States De- partment of Agriculture, Rural Development, and Rural Utilities Services (USDA). Eighteen Virginia prisons were selected to participate, each meeting the criteria of

Photo illustration opposite page: Hands and soil: istock/ARISA THEPBANCHORNCHAI; soil background: istock/AdShooter

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