By Bryan Denson
The Oregonian
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Oregon Department of Corrections has assigned 10 minimum-security inmates to take part in the prison system’s first legal buzz.
Inmate workers at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, in Wilsonville, will tend three hives – up to 5,000 honey bees – and take classes in apiculture to become certified apprentice beekeepers, corrections officials announced on Monday.
It’s the first prison beekeeping program in Oregon, another roll out of the Department of Corrections’ expanding sustainability programs.
“The hives each contain one queen and up to 5,000 bees, which include drones and worker bees,” corrections officials said in a news release. “Job preparedness is one component that contributes to successful reentry into society and reduced recidivism.”
The state prison system already runs a number of novel sustainability projects, including the recycling of ballistic vests, fluorescent light bulbs and plastic potato chip bags. Corrections recently contracted with a Beaverton company to house owls at their gun range and obstacle course to kill rodents before they chew up the training grounds.