Frogs in Prison

I am partial to frogs because of my "earthy" faith, and I gravitate towards prison stories because of the chaplaincy internship I did at Kingston Pen decades ago. So the New York Times article Raising Frogs for Freedom, Prison Project Opens Doors grabbed my attention.

 

Prison inmates in Oregon are working with research biologists to raise endangered frogs for release in the wild. You may be aware that frog populations around the world are plummeting for a variety of reasons including disease and agricultural chemical run-off and industrial pollution. The porous skin of frogs is particularly sensitive to toxins. The inmates not only do this work, for some it leads to possibilities post-prison.

 

Mat Henson, 25, serving a four-and-a-half-year sentence for robbery and assault, and his research partner, Taylor Davis, 29, who landed in the Cedar Creek Corrections Center here in central Washington for stealing cars, raised about 250 Oregon spotted frogs in the prison yard this summer. Working with biologists, Mr. Henson is now helping write a scientific curriculum for other frog-raisers, in prison or out. A previous inmate in the program, released some years ago, is finishing his Ph.D. in molecular biology. When asked about his plans after he is released from prison in 2014, Mr. Henson paused only a moment. “Bioengineering,” he said.

 

How wonderful is this? It brings a lump, or maybe even a frog to my throat. During Creation Time the challenge is to balance the grim news of environmental degradation because of human activity with the hopeful signs and possibilities in God's Wondrous World. Negativity isn't the answer, but neither is denial.  

This story is very hopeful. I suppose my blog title should be Frogs & Inmates Make Prison Break.  Kermit would approve.

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