A new paper by project investigators Dominique Moran and Yvonne Jewkes in the Open Access journal Geographica Helvetica is available to download here. Entitled, ‘Green’ Prisons: Rethinking the ‘Sustainability’ of the Carceral Estate, the paper forms part of the Annual Special Issue Social Geography: ‘Criminality and carcerality across boundaries’ edited by Jen Turner, Antje Schlottman and Matthew Hannah.

Moran and Jewkes introduce the notion of the “green” prison, to highlight the implication of environmental sustainability debates upon carceral policies and practices. This paper explores how ideas surrounding “organizational sustainable development” are echoed in a green prison discourse, which serves to distract from rising costs of mass incarceration in the United States. In concluding, Moran and Jewkes call for a complementary interpretation of the nurturing environment of the green prison – a positive, albeit context-dependent, possibility.

Abstract. This exploratory paper introduces the notion of the “green” prison, uncovering the ways in which…