Prisons benefit the environment by severely restricting inmate consumption of resources and fossil fuels. Prisons are the exact opposite of the car-centered suburban sprawl of single-family homes that environmentalists criticize.
Incarceration may provide other environmental benefits. On the outside, criminals. like most people, rely too much on plastic packaging when buying food. Prisons are more likely to buy food in non-plastic bulk containers such as sacks of rice or potatoes or very large metal cans.
More can be done, of course. We could adjust prisoners to a vegetarian or semi-vegetarian diet that would reduce pollution related to livestock. To save the planet, we need to put more people in prison, not less.
Incarceration may provide other environmental benefits. On the outside, criminals. like most people, rely too much on plastic packaging when buying food. Prisons are more likely to buy food in non-plastic bulk containers such as sacks of rice or potatoes or very large metal cans.
More can be done, of course. We could adjust prisoners to a vegetarian or semi-vegetarian diet that would reduce pollution related to livestock. To save the planet, we need to put more people in prison, not less.
