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Why is the rate of incarceration in Louisiana so high? How do we critique the way prisons are part of infrastructural solutions to anthropocenic instabilities? As Angela Davis writes, “prisons do not disappear social problems, they disappear human beings. Homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, mental illness, and illiteracy are only a few of the problems that disappear from public view when the human beings contending with them are relegated to cages.” One way of imagining and building a vision of an anti-carceral future is practiced in the Solitary Gardens project here in New Orleans: 

The Solitary Gardens are constructed from the byproducts of sugarcane, cotton, tobacco and indigo- the largest chattel slave crops- which we grow on-site, exposing the illusion that slavery was abolished in the United States. The Solitary Gardens utilize the tools of prison abolition, permaculture, contemplative practices, and transformative justice to facilitate exchanges between persons subjected to solitary confinement and volunteer proxies on the “outside.” The beds are “gardened” by prisoners, known as Solitary Gardeners, through written exchanges, growing calendars and design templates. As the garden beds mature, the prison architecture is overpowered by plant life, proving that nature—like hope, love, and imagination—will ultimately triumph over the harm humans impose on ourselves and on the planet.

"Nature" here is constructed in a very particularistic way: as a redemptive force to harness in opposition to the wider oppressive system the architecture of a solitary confinement cell is a part of. It takes a lot of intellectual and political work to construct a counter-hegemonic nature, in other words. Gardeners in this setting strive toward a cultivation of relations antithetical to the isolationist, anti-collective sociality prisons (and in general, a society in which prisons are a permanent feature of crisis resolution) foster.

My interest in NOLA anthropocenics pivots on water, and particularly the ways in which capitalist regimes of value and waste specify, appropriate, and/or externalize forms of water. My research is concerned with water crises more generally, and geographically situated in Flint, Michigan. I thought I could best illustrate these interests with a sampling of photographs from a summer visit to NOLA back in 2017. At the time, four major confederate monuments around the city had just been taken down. For supplemental reading, I'm including an essay from political theorist Adolph Reed Jr. (who grew up in NOLA) that meditates on the long anti-racist struggle that led to this possibility, and flags the wider set of interventions that are urgently required to abolish the landscape of white supremacy. 

Flooded street after heavy rains due to failures of city pumping infrastructure.

A headline from the same week in the local press.

Some statues are gone but other monuments remain (this one is annotated).

A Starbucks in Lakeview remembering Katrina--the line signifies the height of the water at the time.

Reading:

Adolph Reed Jr., “Monumental Rubbish” https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/06/25/monumental-rubbish-statues-torn-down-what-next-new-orleans

P.S. In case the photos don't show up in the post I'm attaching them in a PDF document as well! 

There are many people portrayed and mentioned in the film. They discuss issues within governments and insurance companies. They show patients without insurance struggling to get medication and care. As a result, they express issues with access to care and paying for hte care that they receive. They show doctors and the struggles they have with handling patients and those that come in with the ambulance. Nurses and other ER staff are shown as well. They show narratives of several patients in the waiting room and their experience once they do finally make it to a bed. All of these players have a lot of decisions to make, starting with the decision of the patient ot come to this public hospital (possibly because being turned away from others), and ending with a doctor's care and decision whether or not to release patients. 

Emergency response is discussed a lot in this paper with respect to a global level of care. They analyze the current protocols in place that would create a global response and investigate their effectiveness. The need for a more concrete protocol is discussed as most countries exhibit nationalism and self interest that would inhibit them from helping others. 

1. "At the same time, academic research is often communicated in a format that fails to address the critical policy issues facing aid organizations."
2. "Because reporting often focuses on the most serious attacks, such as kidnapping and fatalities, workshop participants stressed that incidents perceived to be less severe, such as threats and obstructions, are more likely to be underreported. For this reason it is important to better understand the impact of perceived threats."
3. "Workshop participants also noted examples of violence linked to situations where the medical treatment provided has not met patients’ expectations or was unsatisfactory in other ways."
4. "Although violence directly affecting health service delivery in complex security environments has received a great deal of media attention, there is very little publically available research, particularly peer-reviewed, original research. Only thirty-eight articles met the original search criteria outlined in the methods section, of which only eleven contained original research; a further citation search yielded another four original research articles. The remainder was comprised of review articles, commentaries, letters, or analysis based on secondary sources."

1. The Burning of the Capitol Building in 1814 is discussed. Knowles talks about how the burning was investigated by one of the key engineers of the building, Latrobe. He was allowed to investigate without any issues and was ultimately allowed to rebuild. Most Americans, however, viewed the burning as a failure of the military, not the engineer. 
2. The Hague Street Explosion of 1850, which was caused by an exploding boiler and resulted in mass casualties. Investigation and determination of responsibility was carried out by the Coroner's office and police. Media and news reporters also assisted in providing information to the public and attributed the explosion to an overheated boiler, as opposed to an engineering flaw. Jurors listened to expert witnesses in order to determine where the blame could be placed, which ultimately led to the disaster being blamed on all involved in the boiler and factory. 
3. The Iroquois Theater Fire in Chicago that happened in 1903 provides information regarding disaster investigation as well. The fire curtains, shields, and other technology meant to protect the theater from the spread of a fire did not work. Building inspectors came into the city after the disaster to investigate along with architects and other commissioners. It was found that the theater (along with many others in the city) had many building code violations, which called into question the integrity of the entire building code system in Chicago. One of the nation's foremost authorities on fireproof construction, Ripley Freeman, conducted an extensive investigation with financial support from an elite man in Chicago. This marked a new era in history of disaster investigation in the US. 

The Compassion Protocol discusses current French laws and how they affect immigration and healthcare. In France, immigrants in need of healthcare that are unable to receive that healthcare in their native country would be given temporary residence permits and access to healthcare. The social factors, public health concerns, and human rights implications are discussed as well.  

The authors all work at University of California San Francisco. Their names are Vicanne Adams, Taslim Van Hattum, and Diana English. Adams works at USCF and was the former director and vice-chair in the department of anthropology, history, and social medicine. She focuses her research in Global Health, Asian Medical Systems, Social Theory, Critical Medical Anthropology, Sexuality and Gender, Safe Motherhood, Disaster Recovery, Tibet, Nepal, China and the US. She has been involved in various publications and has received numerous grants from the NIH. Van Hattum and English are also within the department for Anthropology, History, and Social Medicine. 

This article investigates the current state of disaster mental health research. They look at the presentation, burden, correlates, and treatment of mental disorders following disasters and look at the challenges surrounding those aspects of research. 

The article discusses major psychopathology that is found in populations affected by disasters. They investigate disorders such as PTSD and MDD and pre-disaster risk factors associated with them. They discuss vulnerable groups, such as women and children. They also look at during and post-disaster factors and how they correlate to an increase in mental health disorders. 

This report then discusses current interventions utilized and their effects on the prevalence of mental health issues. An issue they address is that many victims or those suffering do not seek help, making accurate research difficult.

On the iTunes App Store, there is another app called Medical Management of Radiological Casualties that appears to be similar, but costs $7.99 to download, while REMM's app is free. This app appears to serve a similar function with providing support for healthcare providers, but also includes psychological support information, which REMM does not provide. This app also appears geared toward EMS responders, while the other is primarily made for physicians.