The environmental justice movement has become widespread and popular over the past few decades, with humans rushing to reduce anthropogenic climate change and habitat destruction. Beyond just looking at motor vehicles and energy production, it’s time to turn our attention to detention centers and their effects on people and nature.
Pristine Prison or Dangerous Detention Center
Many prison facilities, particularly those built in environmentally vulnerable areas, pose health risks to incarcerated individuals due to poor infrastructure and limited safeguards while also contributing to environmental degradation through high resource consumption and pollution. Approximately 1,700 prisons and 3,000 jails hold 1.8 million people in the United States. The US alone holds 25% of the world’s incarcerated population. A 2020 study by the Southern Sociological Society found that people in state prisons were associated with increased industrial carbon dioxide emissions, the most significant contributor to climate change.
Prisons are often located on contaminated sites like landfills and former mines. In fact, a recent investigation by Earth Island Journal revealed that at least 589 prisons sit within three miles of a Superfund site, which is a location where hazardous waste contamination poses a significant threat to human health and the environment. If these Superfund sites have been deemed too dangerous to go to school, work, or live near, how can it be justified to incarcerate people near these locations for decades at a time?
The issues aren’t just present in surrounding areas. Even within prisons, environmental hazards run rampant, with systemic neglect often contributing to unsafe conditions for inmates. For example, SCI Fayette, a prison in Pennsylvania, is located on top of a coal waste deposit which has done permanent damage to inmates, causing skin rashes, sores, cysts, gastrointestinal problems, and cancer. Even after significant protests, SCI Fayette remains open, and coal ash dumping continues.
In addition to ongoing environmental issues, prisons have also shown their inability to stand in the face of natural disasters. Evacuation plans are often underdeveloped and infrequently practiced, which can put lives at serious risk during emergencies. For example, when Hurricane Harvey destroyed Houston in 2017, many incarcerated individuals were forced to wait out the storm in their facilities, equipped with scarce resources and without plumbing. When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, Louisiana inmates were left behind and cut off from communication while citizens were evacuated.
One of the most concerning developments is that environmentally and humanely unethical prisons are still being built against the people’s cries. Near Utah’s Great Salt Lake, construction is underway on a massive new prison, despite widespread concern over its poor site selection and environmental risks. The project involves a lot of infrastructure, including six miles of roads and 11 miles of sewer lines, all built on soil known to liquefy during earthquakes. Additionally, the prison is near an unregulated landfill, raising fears that health problems in Utah’s prison population could be worsened by exposure to toxic fumes from the site.
Solutions
Rigorous financial investment and infrastructure development are not necessary to drive environmental improvement. Solar energy, water recycling, agriculture, and composting can all be used successfully for little cost. The price for solar panels has dropped 90% since 2010, and the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act last year boosted the federal tax credit system to help offset the cost. Treating wastewater on prison grounds creates waste products that can be utilized for other purposes within the center. For example, prisons can use the resulting methane gas to heat their buildings, and convert the sludge the process creates into a biosolid similar to fertilizer. They can then sell this biosolid to farmers for additional profits. Finally, growing and composting food onsite leads to reduced food waste that would end up in landfills as well as an anxiety-reducing activity for inmates to do during their free time.
Prisons may currently be polluting the environment and worsening inmates’ lives, but it is up to all who know about the issues to advocate for justice and sustainable change. By implementing some of these changes, the US may just be able to aid its decarceration efforts while meeting the SDG’s and supporting a healthier planet.