With the devastating oil spill on their doorstep, even Louisiana's prison inmates -- locked away from nature in their concrete cells -- are concerned for its impact, and are being drafted in to help with recovery.
Eighty prison inmates were gathered Monday in an auditorium in suburban New Orleans to be taught, ostensibly, how to clean up birds caught up in the oil slick, although Rebecca Dunne of the local NGO Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research said the actual rescues would be handled by professionals.
"I'll need them for general contractors' tasks like carpentry or plumbing," Dunne told AFP of the inmates who are on a six-month work program while in jail.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
Dunne and Michael Carloss, a biologist at the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (DWF), explained to the inmates that the main concern was for pelicans and plovers, whose swamp habitats in the Mississippi Delta is threaten by the gushing oil spill.
An estimated 210,000 gallons of crude a day has been streaming from the wellhead below the Deepwater Horizon rig that sank on April 22, threatening the Gulf coast with environmental catastrophe if the well cannot be capped.
Prisoner Jonathan Boudreaux, jailed for parole violation, identifies strongly with the region, saying the Bayou is his home.
"I hate to see wildlife and animals suffer," he told AFP, adding that he owns three boats and fishes for crab and shrimp on Lake Pontchartrain.
"There's nothing that can survive an oil spill," he lamented softly.
"Oil kills everything. So I guess the spill is going to hit us pretty bad."
For others, working in any way until they gain freedom is most important.
"Be it cleaning up highways or helping out with the bird clean up, I do whatever I'm told," said inmate Josh Palmer, who revealed that on the outside, he in fact makes his living on oil rigs.
"I do gas and oil. It's really well paid. I make like between 1800 and 2500 dollars a week. Risks included," he said.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal announced last week that prisoners were being enrolled to help face the environmental catastrophe of the Gulf of Mexico oil slick.
The Department of Corrections is actively working with the DWF "to train inmates in oil spill clean-up efforts so they can assist the federal lead agencies," he said on Friday.
The spill has sparked fears of an environmental calamity as the region boasts 40 percent of US wetlands -- prime spawning waters for fish, shrimp and crabs and a major stop for migratory birds.
