With limited information on what environmental stressors are poor water quality for rising temperature for infectious diseases — could harm people who live and work in U.S. prisons, legislation introduced Thursday in Congress seeks to fill loopholes.
The Democrat-sponsored Environmental Health in Prisons Act would require the federal government to create an independent advisory panel that could conduct appropriate investigations of all federal prisons, jails and detention facilities, recommend policies to reduce environmental hazards, report on these facilities and outline safeguards . events.
The bill says its goal is to “improve environmental health outcomes” for people at these facilities, located within 3 miles of hundreds of buildings. Superfund sites with a history of toxic waste and pollutants according to a 2017 education.
“As we work to reduce the number of people behind bars, we must ensure that those currently incarcerated have access to clean air, water and housing, are treated with dignity and respect, and can live in safe conditions. dehumanizing,” in collaboration with Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and inmate members of the African-American Coalition Committee at Norfolk-MCI, the lawmakers’ state prison.
In a statement, Pressley said the bill would “affirm the fundamental right to a safe and healthy environment for every person behind the wall.”
If passed, the legislation would direct agencies that oversee federal cancer facilities, including the Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to report to the public about the prevalence and exposure to environmental stressors. These include temperature studies inside facilities, some of which lack adequate air conditioning and ventilation during the summer months.
The draft law also mentions how some facilities are located in areas with poor quality drinking water or places prone to environmental hazards. forest fires.
“Incarcerated people perform jobs such as e-waste recycling, asbestos abatement, lead paint removal and forest firefighting that expose them to hazardous conditions without the same level of protection as other non-incarcerated workers, including protective equipment and occupational health. and security protocols,” the legislation states.
While the bill focuses primarily on federal facilities, it would also create a grant program for state, local, and tribal cancer facilities to collect data in state jails and prisons struggling with inadequate conditions. At least 13 states in the South and Midwest do not have universal air conditioning in their prisons. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, a research and advocacy non-profit organization. And nearly half of all US prisons are located downstream from water sources probably contaminated with eternal chemicalsA UCLA researcher puts nearly a million incarcerated people at risk of long-term negative health effects said a study this year.
Advocates supporting the bill say the collection of environmental health data at federal facilities is long overdue and persistent racial disparities treatment in prisons and jails and as part of prisoners the nation’s legacy of “environmental injustices” It stigmatizes black and brown communities.
“Incarcerated people get the bottom of the barrel when it comes to food, health care and environmental protection. But these injustices don’t just hurt people behind bars,” said William Ragland, an inmate who chairs the African American Coalition Committee at MCI-Norfolk. said in the statement. “Toxic prison environments are a continuation of the pollution affecting many Black communities in Massachusetts and across the country.”