Jailhouse Environmentalism: Understanding Environmental Inequality of Mass Incarceration

• In Event: Roundtable: Incarceration

Abstract

Over the last two decades, environmental justice scholars have shown that the most common victims of environmental crimes are minorities and the poor. Surprisingly, a predominately minority and low-income population that they have not paid adequate attention to are prisoners. In this paper, we turn our attention to this population and the patterns of environmental crime among public and private prisons in the United States. Our analysis draws on the treadmill of production framework to understand the intersection of mass incarceration and environmental degradation and to explain why the multitude of environmental and human health problems created by the prison system in the United States remain ignored by state and federal regulators.

Author

• Anthony Silvaggio, Humboldt State University