What changes in public health frameworks, policies, or practices is this document promoting?
margauxf"An EJ approach could provide new and different tactics to prisoner advocates and their allies. If we understand death row inmates to be a particularly vulnerable population, could the EPA itself become more involved in monitoring conditions, and if so, what are the benefits or risks of such an approach? " (219)
"Instead of environmentally invisible spaces, death row should be viewed as involuntary state homes and therefore particularly deserving of attention and regulation. " (220)
"the EPA’s unique powers can be characterized as (1) information gathering, and (2) enforcement actions.93 The EPA’s tools apply to carceral facilities as they would any other business or agency. By statute, the EPA has the authority to enter and inspect facilities, to request information, and assist facilities in developing or remedying violations." (220) ... "Individual EPA offices have at times attempted to examine the conditions of incarceration at several federal facilities, primarily through information gathering. For example, under an agreement between the EPA and the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) in 2007, over a dozen facilities were audited for environmental hazards.100 These consent arrangements can promote environmental improvement by limiting the potential sanctions for discovered violations." (221)
"Through an environmental justice lens, we may see patterns that were previously hidden. Unlike traditional prisoner advocacy tools, environmental assessments include cumulative impacts over time and in context, rather than single isolated acts." (224) ... "A pattern-based approach may help to discern the underlying factors that result in diagnoses like Glenn’s. " (225)
"An EJ approach fundamentally centers the voices of the impacted and allows for contextual reasoning. Although carceral facilities, and death row in particular, are externally perceived as sites of punishment, incarcerated people may have a different view. Glenn Ford’s cell, where he was confined days at a time, was his involuntary home. Viewing jails and prisons as homes illuminates the humanity of the people who live there. Understanding these spaces as homes underlines the need for carceral facilities to be safe and for individuals to be protected from all types of harm, environmental and otherwise.124 " (225)