The area was once locally renown for coal mining and uranium milling, and while the beauty of the land endured despite the industrial activity, there’s not much aside from prisons happening there economically anymore.

Two years ago, the concept of Prison Ecology was introduced to the world, building off the work of jailhouse lawyers, scholars and activists around the country. On many occasions spanning the last 4 decades of the prison boom (in which prisoner populations increased by 700%), prisoners and their advocates had noted environmental concerns in local […]

On July 13, Miami-Dade State Attorney Rundle responded to our petition appealing to her to allow independent testing of the evidence in the Darren Rainey case. She passed the buck, saying the decision was entirely in the hands of the Medical Examiner. This is disputable, but what is indisputable is that the very next day […]

Late last month, we started a petition asking Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle to allow an independent investigation of the death of Darren Rainey (https://www.change.org/p/justice-for-darren-rainey-a-mentally-ill-inmate-killed-by-state-prison-guards-in-florida). Now, with over 9,100 signatures, we have send the letter below, making our case to Ms. Rundle, with the help of everyone who supported this effort. We will […]

On March 17, Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle released her findings on the case of Darren Rainey, who died at Dade Correctional Institution in 2012 after being placed by prison guards into a shower so hot that, upon his death, skin was separating from his body. She is not charging anyone in his […]

Over the past week, the Prison Ecology Project, the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons and our allies have been reviewing the Department of Justice (DOJ) proposed 2018 budget and listening in on budget hearings in D.C. After three steady years of our nationwide grassroots organizing, including a march to the doorsteps of the DOJ last […]

Recently, President Donald Trump announced that the United States would be withdrawing from the Paris Accords, and that’s a devastating blow to international efforts to slow global warming through environmental protections. Meanwhile, Attorney General Jeff Sessions directed federal prosecutors to file harsher charges against federal offenders, even if they’ve been accused of low level nonviolent […]

Recent conditions at Parnall have been literally poisoning people through prolonged exposure to emissions from human feces.

One way prisons cause catastrophic harm is by adversely impacting the health of the incarcerated and their families, forcing an already economically burdened population to sink deeper into poverty and isolation. A state representative in Florida deserves plaudits for trying to help. Representative David Richardson has been taking on a privately run women’s prison in […]

The Virginia Department of Corrections' new policy will see all incoming mail (photos included) photocopied for delivery to inmates and the original mail shredded.