With more than 2 million people behind bars, the United States has the largest incarcerated population in the world, but in a growing number of American prisons, inmates are doing more than just time. They are rearing endangered plants, animals and butterflies for release in the wild.
Inmates Raise Endangered Plants
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Oregon State Correctional Institution in Salem is growing Kincaid’s Lupine and Golden Paintbrush, flowers relied upon by the rare Fender’s Blue and Taylor’s Checkerspot butterflies. (Captain Chad Naugle, ODOC)
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Inmate Adrianne Crabtree and ODOC Captain Chad Naugle plant violets in a meadow of the Siuslaw National Forest to support recovery of the threatened Oregon Silverspot butterfly. (Larkin Guenther, IAE)
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Ernesto Vergne prays at a cross honoring his friend Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado and the other victims at a memorial to those killed in the Pulse nightclub mass shooting, a few blocks from the club in Orlando, Florida.
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Kincaid's lupine provides sustenance for rare butterflies when out planted on the Oregon Coast. (Captain Chad Naugle, ODOC)