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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! 

I would say the average community member is the main intended audience of this documentary, due to the fact that those in the general public can see themselves as being in the same situation. Most of those in the public aren't medically educated and the responses seen in Libera is the same that many of those would have in other general populations of other countries and locations. Due to the lack of scientific research and statistical analysis in the documentary, I would say that this documentary was meant to appeal to the general average person and not scientists, scholars or experts on the topic of disease containment. 

I further researched some of the articles and works cited throughout the paper to read up more on the backgrounds of the papers. I also looked at statistics on violence and healthcare service delivery as well as stories and past instances of attacks and other forms of violence on workers in the health field and humanitarian sectors. 

The author discusses and analyzes the 9/11 collapse and compares it to other historical disasters in terms of causes as well as the influences of the clashing of power as well as attributions of responsibility. The author goes thorough numerous different historical events in which the underlying forms of politics, power and public/society influences are discussed. Finally, the last event discussed is the World Trade Center. The author discusses the fireproofing material surrounding the beams in the towers, how exit strategies failed, and the remarkable fact that the towers withstood being struck by large jets. He noted, that the buildings might have continued to stand if it weren't for the fires that we couldn't put out and the 2000F temperature reached. Then he brings up the point about how this same situation can affect other sky scrapers in NY. The politics as well as memorial funding is also discussed toward the end of this paper as well. 

Participants complete a 30 minute in person or telephone interview. They offer information about their mental health and physical health (the questions they are asked can be found here: http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/911health/downloads/pdf/wtc/wtc-questionnair….) Information is also gathered about where they were during the attacks, as well as their level of exposure to rubble and smoke etc. After this initial interview, there are waves 2-4 of interviews. These consisted of follow up questions as well as more in depth questions about hospitalization, health conditions, and symptoms. 

The main focus of this article is the unfair treatment and deplorable conditions in which those who are incarcerated at Rikers deal with daily. The article discusses how Rikers is often cast aside, for example the mayor did not develop and evacuation route for Rikers, but the rest of the city got one. There are needs for renovation and money, yet nothing has been done. There have been cases where inmates did not have basic access to medical needs and ended up dying as a truly. There are also cases in which it was documented that inmates developed illnesses while in custody of the jail and medical episodes were triggered by temperature, poor conditions and pollution. This is all discussed and exemplified in the article by way of examples from inmates and what they have dealt with along with documented statistics and facts. 

This article has been referenced in dozens of other papers on the topic of Katrina recovery and the effects the disaster had on its survivors. One of which is cited below: 

Adams, Vincanne et al. “Aging Disaster: Mortality, Vulnerability, and Long-Term Recovery Among Katrina Survivors.” Medical anthropology 30.3 (2011): 247–270. PMC. Web. 10 Oct. 2016.

There are far more articles that have cited this specific work, many of them having to do with Katrina disaster recovery specifically, as well as preventative measures or vulnerabilities that the area had pre hurricane. It is also important to note that the article is also discussed by numerous governmental agencies as well. 

The correlations between mental health disorders and EMS is discussed since those in emergency response are more open to suffer form mental disorders in the midst of disasters. Aside form that the focus was more on how to better study vulnerable populations who have experienced trauma, such as EMS.

This is a 180 page document that has hundreds of components in terms of what information, as well as measures and advice that the report includes and recommends. The report contains information on the radioactive release amounts and deposition in the urban, environmental, agricultural and aquatic areas surrounding the plant. Recommendations for future monitoring and research are also provided. Countermeasures are also widely discussed and ways in which people can combat and help reverse effects of the radiation and evacuations. The effects the disaster had on plants and animals is also analyzed and supported by facts and figures. The amount of human exposure and recommendations are also discussed. Future trends are analyzed as well as very detailed reports of the weather during the time of the incident, how that effected things, how specific types of animals were effected, the differences between external and internal doses.  A break down of the impact on air, shelter, surface water, groundwater etc. is also provided. Needless to say, pretty much any single detail that could possibly be known about the condition during the event and after the event were researched and documented in this report.