Read on Twitter
Since I had my worldview transformed by a conversation about how prisons are among the most pressing environmental justice struggles of our time, I'll drop some links here for those interested geographic ties between the PIC and Waste Management / Toxic disposal. https://twitter.com/jaybeware/status/1339567882724847616
"at least 589 federal and state prisons are located within three miles of a Superfund cleanup site on the National Priorities List, with 134 of those prisons located within just one mile."
https://earthisland.org/journal/americas-toxic-prisons/
https://earthisland.org/journal/americas-toxic-prisons/
“You look at a Google map of the prison and see how it’s surrounded by this coal ash dump—it’s just blindingly obvious that this is a really bad idea.” https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/connection-between-mass-incarceration-and-environmental-justice
"Rikers Island, built on a landfill and surrounded by polluting infrastructure, has long suffered hazardous environmental conditions like extreme summer heat, flooding, and noxious pollution." https://grist.org/justice/a-jail-built-on-a-landfill-is-at-the-center-of-americas-coronavirus-outbreak/
"There’s a growing body of research that explains how poor quality of housing, including limited insulation, air pollutants, and building contaminants like raw sewage, negatively impacts mental health" https://www.vice.com/en/article/bjwnw8/welcome-to-a-shithole-most-us-prisons-are-filled-with-toxic-waste
"The detention center, which houses up to 1,575 undocumented immigrants, is ... on the edge of the Tacoma Tar Pits, named for the three decades worth of toxic sludge that a nearby coal plant dumped into wetlands there, leaving them completely black." https://theoutline.com/post/5410/toxic-prisons-fayette-tacoma-contaminated?zd=1&zi=inekmk53
There is plenty of paywalled academic literature but I tried to keep it accessible. Anyway, prisons are put on top of toxic waste and toxic waste is often later brought to the prison. These decisions are made by local officials and PIC stakeholders, who must be opposed.
Don't let anyone tell you that environmentalism and abolition are distinct issues. A prison is at odds with any "environment" that should exist. /thread
