Justice

How Mass Incarceration Takes a Toll on the Environment

Both prisoners and surrounding communities are affected by this under-studied issue.
An Alabama nonprofit says that the Donaldson Correctional Facility dumped more than 800,000 gallons of sewage into nearby creeks.Black Warrior Riverkeeper/Nelson Brooke

The battle against overcrowding in prisons is as much a fight for basic human rights as it is a fight for the environment.

Increasingly, advocates against mass incarceration are working with allies from the environmental movement to make a combined case for prison reforms. Most advocacy work, petitions, and legal complaints against jails and prisons happen at the local level, but one organization is trying to make the conversation a national one.