Using Inmates to Study Plants

Who knew that prisoners could demonstrate so much care for nature? A team of researchers is working with inmates to study prairie plants, which are grown inside a correctional facility.

The offenders are asked to plant the seeds, observe the way the plants grow, and then write all the data down in tables, for processing. Forest ecologist Nalini Nadkarni is leading the scientific endeavor.

“I have found that by including prisoners in my science project, I get a group of people who have time, who have space, and, as it turns out, have a deep interest in nature,” he says.

Together with environmental scientist Carl Elliot, Nadkarni is conducting his investigations at the Stafford Creek Corrections Center, in Aberdeen, Washington.

Their investigation is being supported with grant money secured from the US National Science Foundation (NSF).

“Most of us have taken and taken, and now it's time for us to give back,” says Terry Essick, inmate number 795727 at the Corrections Center.

“I'm paying my debt to society – if it requires planting plants for a prairie project that's paying my debt to society, that's what I'm doing,” adds the offender, who is serving a 20-year sentence as an accomplice to murder.

The purpose of the research is to determine the exact conditions that prairie plants need to develop their full potential. Some of these species are endangered, and this study may determine potential avenues for conservation.

And it would appear that even incarcerated criminals appreciate this type of effort, even if you may find that hard to believe at first.

“For anybody to actually make the effort that they've made to see this through is great. It teaches me something. It makes me work with people and it's just a new skill that I've learned,” Essick adds.

The science crew, on the other hand, is happy that they've found a number of long-term research assistants. Nadkarni even developed an interesting hypothesis about human nature during her visits to the prison.

“Everyone can be a scientist--everyone can relate to nature, everyone can contribute to the scientific enterprise, even those who are shut away from nature,” the expert believes.

In a surprising twist, numerous other prisons around the world are contemplating the idea of using inmates as research assistants for a variety of scientific endeavors.