Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services

Sustainability

Sustainability

DPSCS is committed to using our available inmate work crews to make an impact on Maryland’s environment.  Governor O’Malley initiated Smart, Green and Growing in 2008 pulling together state and local government, businesses and citizens in an effort to work toward a vision for a smarter, greener, more sustainable State.

Not only will this effort beautify Maryland and provide invaluable environmental benefits for generations to come, it also provides a restorative justice opportunity for our offender work crews  who learn transferable job skills while reintegrating into society.

GOAL: One Million Trees

As part of the Marylanders Plant Trees initiative, DPSCS has set a goal of planting one million trees throughout Maryland using inmate labor.  We began this effort on Arbor Day of  2008, and through June of 2009 our total has reached 200,000. 

The trees are beautifying local communities and parks, as well as roadways. DPSCS partnered with Howard County in 2008 for example, planting 1,000 seedlings at the Patuxent Institution to eventually be transplanted around the county. A fall 2009 planting included over 400 trees for the General’s Highway Corridor Park in conjunction with Anne Arundel County. Additional trees have been planted as saplings across the state on institution farms to be cared for by resident inmates until they are mature enough to be replanted in permanent locations.

Tree Planting Update – DPSCS Reaches Halfway Mark Towards Goal of One Million

Bay Efforts

DPSCS teamed up with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to build 1,000 cages in 2008 can we add – as part of Marylanders Grow Oysters. The cages were given to citizens living along the Tred Avon River to use their own piers to help rejuvenate oyster populations in the Chesapeake Bay.  Inmates at the Eastern Correctional Institution crafted the cages out of materials supplied by DNR.  In 2009, Maryland Correctional Enterprises (MCE) took over the construction of these cages to increase the number available to citizens in 11 new tributaries who are willing to partake.

Maryland Correctional Enterprises also collects seeds to harvest and grow native bay grasses in conjunction with DNR/MES/MPA/USACE at a greenhouse in Western Maryland.  In June of 2009 crews planted over 38,000 plants along the Chesapeake Bay.  Fencing to keep out animals such as geese that can inhibit the grasses growth was also installed.

Recycling

Our DOC Pre-release system embarked on a recycling project in 2008 that kept several tons of debris out of our landfills. 70,000 bricks from the dilapidated Baltimore Coliseum were collected, cleaned and stored to be re-used for projects such as signage around our Department, as well as the state. DPSCS also donated 125 tons of quarried stone to the Poffenberger Farm restoration project at Antietam National Battlefield.

Park Maintenance

DPSCS has partnered with DNR and local environmental agencies all over the state to benefit Maryland’s parks.

Crews cleared/maintained four miles of trails in Western Maryland, built bear-proof campers’ enclosures in Garrett County, and helped maintain boats and buoys on Eastern Shore waterways. They have also completed roofing work at New Germany and Elk Neck State Parks. Graffiti and trash were removed from Dan’s Rock Overlook, and a new retaining wall was constructed.

In Queen Anne’s County, inmates laid 96,000 square feet of sod and built four playing fields in a park near Chestertown.