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America's Toxic Prisons

Truthout and Earth Island Journal investigate the sites of some of the worst environmental injustices: prisons. The prison-industrial complex devastates communities and the environment, taking serious and sometimes life-threatening tolls on human health.

Read more about this series at Introducing “America’s Toxic Prisons.”

The Bureau of Prisons has for years been proposing to build an 800-acre, maximum security prison on a mountaintop removal site in Kentucky, like one of those pictured above.
News
Environment & Health

Plans for Prison on Mountaintop-Removal Site in Kentucky Scuttled. Maybe.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons has withdrawn the $500 million proposal, but Mitch McConnell says he’s moving it forward.
by
Maureen Nandini Mitra,
Earth Island Journal
July 4, 2019
Truthout
News
Environment & Health

EPA Adds Prison Locations to Its Environmental Justice Mapping Tool

Activists celebrate move as an advance in the struggle to recognize the environmental rights of incarcerated people.
by
Zoe Loftus-Farren,
Truthout
September 21, 2017
Truthout
News
Prisons & Policing

“No Toilet, No Ventilation”: Prisoners Describe Horrific Conditions in Harvey’s Flood Zone

“We are alive barely,” says one prisoner in Beaumont, Texas.
by
Candice Bernd,
Truthout
September 8, 2017
Truthout
News
Prisons & Policing

Eastham Prisoners Sue Over Deadly Heat and Contaminated Water in Texas

Deadly heat, unsafe water, black mold and cockroaches plague prisoners at many Texas prisons.
by
Candice Bernd,
Truthout
August 8, 2017
Truthout
News
Prisons & Policing

Climate Refugees in Toxic Immigrant Jails Are Victims of Environmental Racism

An immigrant jail in Tacoma, Washington, is in an area so polluted it was designated unfit for residences.
by
Candice Bernd,
Truthout
July 30, 2017
Truthout
News
Prisons & Policing

DOJ Withdraws Funding Request for Kentucky Prison on Mountaintop-Removal Site

Prison would have been terrible for health of prisoners and local wildlife, say advocates.
by
Zoe Loftus-Farren,
Truthout
June 30, 2017
Truthout
News
Prisons & Policing

Prisoners Enduring Extreme Heat Are Casualties of Texas’s Climate Denial

In Texas prisons, the price of climate denial is human lives.
by
Candice Bernd,
Truthout
June 12, 2017
Truthout
News
Environment & Health

America’s Toxic Prisons: The Environmental Injustices of Mass Incarceration

U.S. prisons may be largely hidden from sight, but their environmental toxicity spreads far beyond their walls.
by
Candice Bernd,
Maureen Nandini Mitra &
Zoe Loftus-Farren,
Truthout
June 1, 2017
Truthout
News
Environment & Health

Environmental Justice Activists Fight Plans for Federal Prison on Mountaintop-Removal Site

Environmental justice activists are demanding federal agencies count prison populations when assessing environmental justice impacts.
by
Candice Bernd,
Truthout
June 17, 2016
Truthout
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