Polluting our prisons? An examination of Oklahoma prison locations and toxic releases, 2011–2017
| Date | 01 October 2020 |
| Published date | 01 October 2020 |
| Author | Jericho R McElroy,Michael A Long,Michelle L Estes,Maggie Leon-Corwin,Jon Lewis |
| DOI | 10.1177/1462474519899949 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Polluting our prisons?
An examination of
Oklahoma prison
locations and toxic
releases, 2011–2017
Maggie Leon-Corwin ,
Jericho R McElroy, Michelle L Estes,
Jon Lewis and Michael A Long
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma, OK, USA
Abstract
Recent research has highlighted numerous environmental concerns with US prisons,
including that prisons are often located on undesirable land that is in close proximity to
environmental hazards. We utilize an environmental justice and green criminology per-
spective to test this in Oklahoma using data on prison sites and toxic releases provided
by the US Environmental Protection Agency for a period of seven years (2011–2017).
We focus on Oklahoma because it recently became the state with the highest overall
incarceration rate and has a history of elevated levels of pollution. Our results find that
prison zip codes have greater TRI emissions compared to non-prison zip codes. We
conclude with a discussion of the implications of the study and directions for future
research.
Keywords
Environmental justice, green criminology, Oklahoma, prisons, toxic releases
Corresponding author:
Maggie Leon-Corwin, Department of Sociology, Oklahoma State University, 431 Murray, Stillwater, OK
74078, USA.
Email: maggie.chamberlain@okstate.edu
Punishment & Society
2020, Vol. 22(4) 413–438
!The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/1462474519899949
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Introduction
Research has consistently shown that marginalized social groups (e.g. racial and
ethnic minorities, the poor) are exposed to environmental hazards and pollution
more frequently and in greater amounts compared to the rest of the population
(for reviews see Lynch et al., 2015; Mohai et al., 2009b). The relationship linking
disparate pollution exposure to marginalized groups – what is commonly described
as an environmental justice concern – has been well studied within sociology and
criminology in recent decades (Mohai et al., 2009b; Saha and Mohai, 2005; Zilney
et al., 2006). Scholars have observed disproportionate exposure to dangerous pol-
lutants in schools, workplaces, and residential neighborhoods that have high per-
centages of minorities and poor people (e.g. Chakraborty and Zandbergen, 2007;
Evans and Marcynyszyn, 2004; Zilney et al., 2006). However, the exposure of
prisoners to environmental hazards is understudied.
Prisons are unique sites for examining exposure to environmental harms. First,
prisons are typically located on undesirable land (Abolitionist Law Center, 2014;
Bernd et al., 2017; Davis, 2003; Opsal and Malin, 2019) which may expose incar-
cerated people to an increased number of environmental health hazards. Prisons
also produce a lengthy list of environmental hazards that negatively impact the
surrounding communities, including overconsumption of water, removal of natu-
ral resources during prison siting, production of high volumes of waste (Opsal and
Malin, 2019), contributing to surrounding water pollution by dumping chemicals
into local waterways, and increasing air pollution from prison industry and vehicle
emissions from those who visit the prison or bring in supplies (Bernd et al., 2017;
Pellow, 2017). Prisoners face unique challenges that are distinct from the experi-
ences of unincarcerated people because prisoners have no input as to where they
are imprisoned and are unable to relocate themselves (Helppie-Schmieder, 2016).
Racial and ethnic minorities, as well as poor people, are disproportionately incar-
cerated at higher rates compared to white and affluent people, indicating members
of these groups may face an increased risk of exposure to environmental hazards
due to incarceration.
The past few decades have witnessed an increase in studies that focus on envi-
ronmental justice issues from a green criminological perspective (Lynch et al., 2015;
Zilney et al., 2006); however, there remains a dearth of studies that directly study
prisons in relationto environmental harms (Pellow, 2018a). We address thisconcern
by examining the differences in toxic release emissions between Oklahoma zip codes
that contain (or are adjacent to) prisons compared to the remaining zip codes for a
period of seven years (2011–2017) as measured by the US Environmental Protection
Agency’s (US EPA) Toxics Release Inventory (TRI).
The state of Oklahoma has led the nation in female incarceration rates for more
than 30 years, and it recently became the state with the highest overall incarceration
rate (Prison Policy Initiative, 2018a, 2018b). Additionally, over the past decade,
Oklahoma has frequently made national headlines for environmental problems
related to human activity, including a series of water quality scandals that surfaced
414 Punishment & Society 22(4)
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