Prisons, Jails, and the Environment: Why Environmentalists Should Care About Mass Incarceration?

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between mass incarceration and environmental inequalities. The United States incarcerates more people than any other country, and incarceration is highly racialized. The article discusses how prisons are settler colonial ecosystems that produce injustice. Prisons are located close to hazardous sites and in areas prone to extreme weather events. Food insecurity is also commonplace in jails. The article introduces concepts such as carceral food justice and carceral food sovereignty to recognize the unique circumstances that inmates experience in their quest to acquire healthy, affordable, adequate, and culturally desirable food.

Unsafe communities: environmental injustice in carceral spaces

“…Recognizing the dimensions of environmental racism involved is critical for understanding the full scale of inequities embedded throughout incarceration. Indeed, the environmental injustices that occur in the criminal legal system perpetuate cycles of disadvantage and exacerbate health disparities (Bernd et al , 2017; Block, 2023; Taylor, 2023).…”

“…This can compound existing health disparities these communities face as a result of inadequate access to medical care (Syed et al , 2014), healthy foods (Hilmers et al , 2012; Zenk et al , 2005), and green spaces (Kim et al , 2020). By extension, emergent environmental health scholarship also highlights how carceral spaces are frequently located in areas that experience high pollution and environmental health hazards, elucidating the environmental health risks faced by incarcerated individuals (Bernd et al , 2017; Block, 2023; Taylor, 2023).…”