By Panagioti Tsolkas Wayland Coleman, a prisoner at MCI-Norfolk, stepped out of the shower and noticed something strange last year. It was as if his towel was, in his words, “was used to wipe dirt off the floor.” [Image of Coleman to the right] “I don’t know exactly what is in this water, but I […]

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 […]

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.

Federal regulators no longer are pressing to cut the costs of most prison phone calls, backing away from a years-long effort to limit charges imposed by a handful of private companies on inmates and their families.