PRISON PAMPERING: Prison Plans Could Include Butterfly Garden and Yoga Space

MITCHELLVILLE IA—

Prison or pampering? Plans for an expanded Mitchellville Prison could include a softball field; a butterfly garden; yoga space; trails for quiet reflection and maybe even an amphitheater. Iowa State University Landscape Architecture students worked with Mitchellville Women's Prison to produce plans for landscaping the new 68-million dollar prison expansion.

"(We) told them what we wanted . What we did not want," Warden Patti Wachtendorf says, "They came here and viewed the prison, talked to some offenders and they talked to some staff about what would you like the land scaping to look like"
"I expected, not hardened criminals but something of the sort," Student Alicia Adams says "And actually speaking to them, they're people. They had a lot to say about the landscape. They were very concerned for the well being of the staffand the visitors and each other. And they really knew what they wanted.

What they wanted is a calming environment that's less like a prison.

"How nice for somebody to look, from a hospice room out to a butterfly garden," Wachtendorf says, "It's peaceful. It's serene."

"These are people and yes they have committed crimes but our goal is to rehabilitate them to get them back out into the world", Adams adds.

But isn't a prison supposed to be unpleasant?

"It's gonna be progressive." Wachtendorf says, "It's gonna be bright and cheery. It's also gonna have razor wire and fences. It's gonna have concrete. It's gonna have locked doors. But it's gonna be an environment where women can come and make changes...I don't consider this a country club. I don't want this to be a country club. I want this to be a positive safe environment for both staff and offenders"

The university didn't charge the prison for designing the landscaping, but the college was given 50-thousand dollars in grants to create the class. Opponents say that's not money well spent. "Well, I'm sure a lot of Iowans would like to vacation there," Senator Brad Zaun (R) Polk County says, "The fact of the matter is this is wrong. And it's the wrong use of taxpayers money."

Senator Zaun says he would vote against any money for butterfly gardens and yoga spaces for inmates. "Prison should not be pleasant. They're there because they committed a crime against society and they have a debt to pay. This is not supposed to be a luxury home," he says.

But the warden insists--this is less about luxury and more about rehabilitation "Our women stll need to be treated like human beings," Wachtendorf says, "They've created victims, yes they have. But they're still women, 95 percent of our women are going back home. So we need to send them out better than they came in. And the environment will make a big difference on whenther they go out better or whether they go back out worse."

There is no budget in place yet for the landscaping. The prison expansion project is expected to be complete in two years.