12 Environmental Justice in Prisons

Environmental justice touches just about everyone in society, directly or indirectly. It’s affecting the air we breathe, the water we drink, the land we build. It’s the right that everyone is entitled to. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) defines it as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income concerning the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies (USEPA).

Somehow, as society has progressed, the idea of environmental justice has been lost in application, particularly when addressing certain demographics and communities of people—those incarcerated. Incarcerated populations are consistently overlooked in environmental policies. From a country standpoint, this chapter will focus on how ecological justice affects those incarcerated in federal and state prisons across the United States, more specifically, how prisons are often built on the worst conditions, making the living conditions exponentially worse and violating individual rights to environmental justice.

For a background purpose, it is important to lay the groundwork of prisons, their initial goals, how locations are chosen, and the trends in those incarcerated. The birth of US prisons was in Philadelphia, dating back to 1790. Soon after, several other relatively small penitentiaries popped up in the Northeast. The main purpose of them is to keep “persons awaiting trial or execution, hold runaways slaves, indentured servants, and other law violators” (Musick). Mind, since this was so long ago, the caliber of prisons held to doesn’t come close to what it is now. Due to that, they were often built on the most unsought land in towns. This trend continued as those incarcerated were often viewed as outcasts in society.

However, the lack of knowledge about the impact of environmental elements was still unknown then. Now, the same line can’t be said.

As society has progressed, we’ve seen more intensive measures taken to address environmental justice inequities throughout the US, both at the state and federal levels. Yet, still, there hasn’t been much movement regarding the conversation of prisons and environmental justice.

From the beginning stages, where a prison is located, environmental justice should come up. Often, there are conversions made of “former hospitals, mental health facilities, boys’ or girls’ training schools, industrial schools, college campuses, and forestry.” (When a Prison…). The conversion of old facilities into prisons that house the maximum capacity of persons poses environmental risks to both living and working in said facilities. From a high-level hazardous materials contamination perspective, there’s a higher risk of asbestos, lead paint, and polychlorinated biphenyls. These can be released during renovations, attempting to bring the structure up to code. These exposures most commonly can lead to respiratory issues, cognitive impairments, and reproductive health issues. Hand in hand, there is also a high concern about air quality and resource demand in these old buildings.

Prisons in America are also often built on or near hazardous land. As touched on before, this can be due to being converted from old structures. Most typically, these are built near or on landfills or chemical plants.

            Billions of pounds of chemicals are released into the U.S. air, waterways, and land. Research and studies have shown a correlation to health consequences, from headaches to autoimmune diseases. While exposures are widespread nationwide, they are not equally distributed.

The U.S.’s Southern, Midwestern, and Mountain regions tend to have more toxic emissions than other regions (EPA, 2019). Areas with high poverty levels and large concentrations of people of color also tend to be more polluted (Evans and Kantrowitz, 2002; Rogers, 2015). This opens the conversation to how, if every day individual is put at risk, how are those incarcerated affected by the toxic emissions.  Of those detained in the U.S., which is roughly 1.2 million, 2/3 are identified as low income or have pre-existing health conditions. If those who are already in a vulnerable spot are then put into a prison that heightens all toxic exposure, who will the impact be? In a study done by Elisa L. Toman, she studies the correlation between prison location emissions. Breaking down the density of the prison by ethnicity.

Physical Environments in Prison

Overcrowding

In the US, since the 1970s, there has been a max influx in the incarceration rate, increasing about 400%. This rate now puts us in first for the highest incarceration rate by country. In the 1970s, when President Nixon declared drug abuse to be “public enemy number one,” was when the “War on Drugs” began initially causing this influx of incarcerated. Since then the US has ebbed and flowed with the amount of individuals incarcerated – topping off at about 2 million today.

Graph from “the sentencing project) – reference them in the

While the number of people incarcerated has grown, the number of prisons has not been able to keep up at the same rate. This has been viewed as a social and political issue since the 1970s, “putting people in prison was easy, but building them was not.” (overcrowded”) Originally, the answer was to fit as many people into one facility as possible, decreasing the quality of care as the ratio between prisoners and workers became skewed. However, as the rate of those incarcerated maintained a high number, the boom in privatization of prisons happened. There was now a way to capitalize on those incarcerated. This led to the flipping of abandoned facilities and less desirable land to be built upon, transforming into prisons. Which, as previously discussed, also poses even more concerns with quality.

A necessary condition for the rapidly increasing incarcerated rate has been the “massive expansion in prison construction and capacity” (overcrowding”). Cell blocks have become smaller as a result while still typically remaining two to a block for standard prisons. Depending on the type and location of the prison they may have a lack of green space, or other open spaces for the inmates.

Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene

The overcrowding of prisons, combined with their lack of status in society, is a breeding ground for poor sanitation and hygiene. According to the World Health Organization, sanitation refers to the system and infrastructure used for managing all kinds of waste. At the same time, hygiene focuses on personal practices and behavior to prevent the spread of germs and diseases. Both of which are crucial to human health. As discussed in class, poor sanitation and hygiene can lead to the fall of countries, let alone stand-alone facilities like prisons.

Regardless of location in the U.S., the common thread regarding inmates and sanitation is rather poor – for appropriate language. Often, everything is communal or shared by at least two individuals. Many times, privacy is a privilege of the past. In a study done to look deeper into WASH inside U.S. prisons, a woman described her time as “’ feeling like I was not even a person, a woman. I felt as if I were just a caged animal to be observed, like in a zoo.’” (WASH article). She recalls this feeling being invoked by having a lack of sanitary products combined with a lack of privacy. The facility did not seem to have the resources to uphold the basic needs of those it was housing.

Another commonality was that plumbing was often broken. This seemed to be a frequent experience, as the officers would dismiss it. At times, the problem would go days without being addressed. In extreme cases, correctional officers could interfere with the plumbing and deliberately withhold water (WASH article).

In prisons, everything is limited – a fixed number of resources are available to the inmates. This includes soap, toothpaste, feminine hygiene, and soap. These are the most basic hygiene products. Some facilities will include a wider variety, while the most crowdedcrowded, public and private, will not even have all of the basics. The lack of products often dehumanizes the inmates, stripping them of dignity.

This systematic issue must be addressed atat all levels – including the state and federal levels. The lack of knowledge of whether the water will work or not being able to access proper sanitary items violates human rights. In addition, not having privacy when using sanitation stalls adds another element to the mix. These things go beyond just hygiene and sanitation; they are also about preserving the human dignity left in one of the most vulnerable populations.

Lighting and Noise

Lighting and noise are the last sections covered in the subsection on the physical environment in prisons. These are both factors that are put on the back burner when thinking about the overall production of a prison; however, they have proven to lead to worsening health conditions. Excessive lighting and noise exposure fall into the environmental justice category, as there is no way for one incarcerated to control the amount of their exposure.

In prisons, the light source is almost always artificial, with minimal natural light exposure. Excessive number of lights affects not only sleep but tends to lead to long-term physical and mental health issues. Of those incarcerated, while it is not supposed to be a per-say ‘comfortable’ way of life, it should cater to basic needs. Enforcing a different type of light rather than white light could contribute to better effects of sleeping and, therefore, improve sleep and wellness overall.

Excessive noise tends to also further preexisting health conditions, contributing to issues like hypertension and PTSD. In a study by Jacobson, following the line between loss of noise in prisoners, he concluded a ‘high incidence of hearing loss in the prison population’” (light and noise). A lot of the time, these prisoners come into facilities with somewhat moderate hearing levels. Dependent on the amount of time spent in the facility determines the amount lost. The sources vary from fights between inmates to slamming of cell doors and overhead speakers. Well, this is one of the more difficult problems to address. It’s worth noting that this is an environmental factor that inmates have no control over.

In prisons, these variables affect not only those incarcerated but also those staffed in the facility. This is a part of the problem when addressing environmental health issues within prisons because it is affecting incarcerated individuals who are being disproportionally marginalized.