Coal, Cop City and the Carceral Landscape

• In Event: Place, Political Economy, & Environmental Injustice: Studies in Green Criminology

Abstract

The death knell of coal in Central Appalachia has driven policymakers to seek alternative economic options. Many communities have latched on to incarceration facilities as lifelines, with dozens of prisons built in the region in the last three decades. The benefits of prison building have proven minimal, however, while also precluding other development opportunities (Perdue and Sanchagrin 2016). Today, another carceral scheme has emerged in the remains of the coalfields. In 2022, more than two million dollars of federal funds designated for coal mine lands restoration in West Virginia was earmarked for the creation of a police and military training facility on a former mine site. Similar to the prison industry, this "cop city" also has dim prospects for benefitting the people of the region. Rather than investment in community development and reclamation of contaminated lands, this plan provides few benefits to the local community. In short, once exploited and degraded by outside corporate interests, this space is now a carceral landscape, being used to further militarize policing and enhance the capabilities of those seeking to stifle dissent. This paper investigates the political processes that have brought this cop city to the mountains, as well as the community response.

Author

• Robert Perdue, Virginia Tech