Workers with SunEdison have started installing solar panels at the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi; Chuckawalla Valley and Ironwood prisons in Blythe; and North Kern State Prison in Delano. Report by the Los Angeles Times.

The projects call for a total of more than 83,000 solar panels, providing 25 megawatts of solar power a year, the CDCR said. The environmental impact of the projects will be the equivalent of taking 90,000 cars off the road for a year.

The agency expects the projects to save taxpayers $57 million in energy costs over the 20-year life of the panels.

All four projects are expected to be completed by December.

Solar panels are scheduled to be installed at the state prison in Lancaster next summer.

Instead of reporting to the laundry or the kitchen or the boiler room, a Washington state prison inmate may report to the compost heap [if they are] taking part in a “green work” program at the Cedar Creek Corrections Center. Inmates grow organic produce, compost the prison’s food waste, take part in ecological research projects with a nearby university, and even produce honey from the prison’s own hives.  The Washington State Department of Corrections boasts 34 LEED-certified facilities, with 923,789 square feet of LEED-certified space added in fiscal year 2008 alone …

This fall, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced 16 new green retrofitting projects, which they estimate will save $3 million in energy costs each year. The state already has solar power fields at two facilities, and plans to build six more in the coming year. A new $176 million juvenile detention facility in Alameda County — home to Berkeley and Oakland — recently became the country’s first jail to receive LEED gold certification.  Other green projects — from wind turbines to biomass boilers — have been announced by Departments of Corrections in Virginia, Nevada, and Indiana…

Ken Ricci, of Ricci Greene Associates, is currently working on a new $120 million detention center in downtown Denver, which the company plans to submit for LEED certification. “There’s a recognition that sustainable, or ‘green’ design, is actually a plus for a population that’s confined 24 hours a day,” Mr. Ricci said. “Environment cues behavior. If you treat people like animals, they behave like animals.”  Mr. Ricci … says design elements that earn LEED points, like daylighting and access to views, also improve security. “If you treat them like human beings — that is to say, there’s daylight coming in, the noise level is at a normative level — therefore your adrenaline level goes down, therefore your stress level goes down, the inmates feel safer.”

State Rep. Tom McVea … warned state Department of Corrections’ officials that they will have to be creative.  “Y’all got quite a challenge on your hands. … There’s got to be some innovative thinking,” McVea said during a meeting of the legislative Subcommittee on Public Safety and Corrections.   With state general fund revenue expected to drop by $1.2 billion in the upcoming budget year that starts July 1, agencies are slashing travel, halting hiring and looking for other ways to trim costs …

The corrections department is vulnerable because 88 percent of its $543 million budget comes from the state general fund, which is suffering a downturn in revenue. The agency spends 70 percent of its budget — or $382 million — on salaries and benefits.  The agency’s undersecretary, Thomas Bickham, said his agency is trying to cut costs through privatizing services such as food.   He said the department also is buying equipment to turn kitchen grease into biodiesel fuel.  “We produce a lot of grease at our institutions. We fry a lot of food for these guys,” Bickham said.

There is more information from The Advocate.

The state is among those with mandates to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and the prison solar system efforts underscore its position as a national leader in renewable energy efforts … The state plans to install photovoltaic solar power systems that convert sunlight to electricity in at least six more prisons.  At peak production levels, the prisons can get a quarter of their energy from the solar setups. State officials expect to save $100,000 in energy costs per year, per prison …

The prisons, Ironwood and Chuckawalla Valley, are located next to each other, about 90 miles east of Palm Springs in the Mojave Desert, in the southern half of the state … Ironwood State Prison incarcerates some 4,700 male felons. Chuckawalla Valley State Prison houses another 3,900. The prisons’ populations range from minimum to medium security. Each facility has about 1,000 people on staff … They’re ideal locations for solar installations, according to Paul Verke, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, or CDCR. “We have space in terms of land, and access to facilities and security,” said Verke. “The operation of a solar power plant works well with the layout.”

The full detailed story can be found at Investors.com.