Tombstone Towns and Toxic Prisons: Prison Ecology and the Necessity of an Anti-prison Environmental Movement

Bradshaw, Elizabeth A.

doi:10.1007/s10612-018-9399-6

Cited by 41 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…African Americans, especially poor African American men, have been disproportionately incarcerated (Alexander, 2012; Western and Muller, 2013; Western and Wildeman, 2009). The rapid rise in incarceration rates also has led to numerous correctional facilities experiencing underfunding and overcrowding, which increase the risk of environmental harm by concentrating large populations in limited space with few resources (Bradshaw, 2018; Christie, 2017; Pellow, 2017).…”

Section: Prisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whereas most individuals have some level of agency in deciding where they will reside, prisoners have none. Furthermore, current US EPA regulations pertaining to environmental justice do not include guidelines to protect prisoners (Bradshaw, 2018; Pellow, 2018b). In one of the only studies on prison locations and environmental exposure, Vogel (2018) found some support for prison locations being positively related to increases in toxic releases in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Texas.…”

Section: Prisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The researchers also highlighted how the sites of prisons experience an increase in environmental hazards and degradation that negatively impacts local residents and ecosystems (Bernd et al., 2017). Similarly, Bradshaw (2018) details environmental injustices in a large prison in St. Louis, Michigan and notes that despite a number of lawsuits filed by prisoners, serious water contamination issues remain unaddressed. Overall, these studies highlight some of the unique environmental hazards that incarcerated individuals may be exposed to, which in turn, increases their risk of experiencing related negative health outcomes.…”

Section: Prisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given that recent empirical findings conclude that prison placement is not a random process (Eason, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2017; Eason et al., 2017), research needs to continue to map the association among prison sites, social groups, inequality, and environmental justice concerns (Bradshaw, 2018; Opsal and Malin, 2019).…”

Section: Prisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Polluting our prisons? An examination of Oklahoma prison locations and toxic releases, 2011–2017

Leόn-Corwin

McElroy

Estes

et al. 2020

Punishment & Society

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Recent research has highlighted numerous environmental concerns with US prisons, including that prisons are often located on undesirable land that is in close proximity to environmental hazards. We utilize an environmental justice and green criminology perspective to test this in Oklahoma using data on prison sites and toxic releases provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency for a period of seven years (2011–2017). We focus on Oklahoma because it recently became the state with the highest overall incarceration rate and has a history of elevated levels of pollution. Our results find that prison zip codes have greater TRI emissions compared to non-prison zip codes. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of the study and directions for future research.

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Section: Prisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Prisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Prisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Prisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Polluting our prisons? An examination of Oklahoma prison locations and toxic releases, 2011–2017

Leόn-Corwin

McElroy

Estes

et al. 2020

Punishment & Society

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“…EPA EJSCREEN has also been used to address the environmental health concerns of incarcerated populations. Currently, the tool is at the forefront of the ‘prison ecology movement’, which utilizes GIS mapping to examine the proximity of correctional facilities to known hazardous waste sites [89]. Studies performed by the Prison Ecology Project (PEP) found that among a range of federal and state prisons from Colorado to Indiana, 589 were located within three miles of a Superfund or hazardous waste site [90].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Utilization of the Maryland Environmental Justice Screening Tool: A Bladensburg, Maryland Case Study

Driver

Mehdizadeh

Bara-Garcia

et al. 2019

IJERPH

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Maryland residents’ knowledge of environmental hazards and their health effects is limited, partly due to the absence of tools to map and visualize distribution of risk factors across sociodemographic groups. This study discusses the development of the Maryland EJSCREEN (MD EJSCREEN) tool by the National Center for Smart Growth in partnership with faculty at the University of Maryland School of Public Health. The tool assesses environmental justice risks similarly to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (USEPA) EJSCREEN tool and California’s tool, CalEnviroScreen 3.0. We discuss the architecture and functionality of the tool, indicators of importance, and how it compares to USEPA’s EJSCREEN and CalEnviroScreen. We demonstrate the use of MD EJSCREEN through a case study on Bladensburg, Maryland, a town in Prince George’s County (PG) with several environmental justice concerns including air pollution from traffic and a concrete plant. Comparison reveals that environmental and demographic indicators in MD EJSCREEN most closely resemble those in EPA EJSCREEN, while the scoring is most similar to CalEnviroScreen. Case study results show that Bladensburg has a Prince George’s environmental justice score of 0.99, and that National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) air toxics cancer risk is concentrated in communities of color.

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Carceral and Climate Crises and Health Inequities: A Call for Greater Transparency, Accountability, and Human Rights Protections

Golembeski¹,

Dong²,

Irfan³

2021

World Med & Health Policy

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The United States has approximately 5 percent of the world's population but incarcerates nearly 25 percent of the world's incarcerated population and produces nearly 25 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. Climate change and hyperincarceration are causes and consequences of structural racism and economic deprivation, which disproportionately affect structurally disenfranchised citizens, including lower-income communities, communities of color, and people with disabilities. Empirical evidence exists regarding the adverse health effects of climate change and mass incarceration, which occur in cascading and overlapping categories and include preventable death, illness, and injury. Researchers underscore the medical vulnerability of incarcerated populations, who are increasingly susceptible to climate-driven exposure pathways and mental and physical health outcomes involving extreme temperatures, natural disasters, infectious diseases, and displacement. Intersectional structural drivers, such as anthropogenic climate change and hyperincarceration, undermine social and political determinants of health equity. Policymakers and health professionals can advance understanding and mitigate present and anticipated public health threats by increasing transparency, accountability, and human rights protections with an emphasis on decarceration and decarbonization.

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Tombstone Towns and Toxic Prisons: Prison Ecology and the Necessity of an Anti-prison Environmental Movement

Cited by 41 publications

References 15 publications

Polluting our prisons? An examination of Oklahoma prison locations and toxic releases, 2011–2017

Polluting our prisons? An examination of Oklahoma prison locations and toxic releases, 2011–2017

Utilization of the Maryland Environmental Justice Screening Tool: A Bladensburg, Maryland Case Study

Carceral and Climate Crises and Health Inequities: A Call for Greater Transparency, Accountability, and Human Rights Protections

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