What is the role of multi-species ecologies in creating spaces that counteract the violence in carceral systems and environmental destruction? This book brings together, for the first time, contributions on issues related to prison, jail, and reentry programs, community-based interventions, environmental justice, and sustainability. Through rigorous analysis, detailed case studies, poetry, and personal reflections, the book offers ways of thinking and acting at the intersection of environmental issues and the carceral system. It gathers hard-earned wisdom and insight of researchers, activists, practitioners, and community leaders from within and beyond prison walls who have taken up their projects despite profound institutional constraints.
Approaches in the book range from reform to abolition, as authors detail both practical interventions and imaginative courses of action. More than a contribution to academic knowledge, the book also uniquely highlights voices of those who are incarcerated, survivors of crime, and institutional stakeholders. In addition to writing about the carceral system based on research and personal experience, authors describe practices that are creating transformative spaces of environmental education, building effective pipelines for green workforce development, and sustaining reciprocal relationships for eco-social healing.
"Ecologies of Justice is a compelling exploration of the intersection between environmental justice and the carceral system. The voices of incarcerated individuals, survivors of crime, and institutional stakeholders highlight the transformative potential of ecological practices, from prison gardens to community-based environmental education. Poetry and reflections enhance the book's emotional resonance, illustrating justice and healing through connection to nature. More than academic discourse, it is a testament to resilience and innovation in creating a more just, sustainable world."
"An imaginative montage of cutting-edge research, poetry, history, social criticism, and timely storytelling, this inspiring text puts the voices of incarcerated people, survivors of crime, horticultural educators, correctional reformers, and prison abolitionists in conversation with each other and with the wider ecology of nature to which we belong."
"This profound volume weaves a remarkable and informative tapestry from voices that raise awareness and pose solutions for two of our most urgent societal concerns: carceral and environmental. The editors have taken time and care to include expressions from diverse people and multiple genres—from poetry to expository—to ensure that the full range of textures and meanings has been included."
"Ecologies of Justice offers an important reflection on the intersection between environmental justice, ecology, crime, and prison. The authorship is unique, comprised of practitioners, academics, community representatives, and the incarcerated community. This combination is rare but necessary, ensuring a well-rounded discussion of the ecologies of justice that places those most directly impacted at the center of the conversation."
"Ecologies of Justice opens up a dynamic space of dialogue between fields of study and practice too often treated separately: environmental resilience and sustainability on the one hand and mass incarceration and the carceral state on the other. It firmly situates justice debates at the crossroads of environmental degradation and social exclusion."
"Ecologies of Justice is so rich and multidimensional; I applaud the public sociology orientation of the bookand how it is written by multiple people from multiple perspectives at the intersection of carceral issues and ecology. The person-centered language also illustrates some of the disconnects between academic discourse and how people describe their own experiences of oppression."
Contents Yarrow Frederick Livingston Introduction Matthew DelSesto, Daniela Jauk-Ajamie, Elizabeth Lara, and Shea Zwerver
Part I: Contexts Jury Duty Frederick Livingston Chapter 1: The Environmental and the Carceral Matthew DelSesto, Daniela Jauk-Ajamie, Elizabeth Lara, and Shea Zwerver Chapter 2: Remembering a Leader, Continuing the Work Carlos Rosado Chapter 3: Soil Therapy Genea Richardson and Brendon Wilson Chapter 4: How Soil Acts as a Living Witness to Racial Violence Leanna First-Arai Chapter 5: The Politics of Concrete David Helps Chapter 6: Temporal Misalignment William Anderson Chapter 7: A Prison Tree Morgan Godvin
Chapter 8: Healing Our Relationship to the Land Ki’Amber Thompson
Part II: Inside The Garden Sleeps Joe McManus Chapter 9: From Insight Garden Program to Land Together Elizabeth Lara Chapter 10: The Sustainability in Prisons Project Kelli Bush The Compost Pile Brian Auclair Chapter 11: Worm Farming in Washington State Nicholas Hacheney and Tomas Keen Chapter 12: Set Free Through Sustainability Juan Hernandez Chapter 13: Prison with Purpose Trip Finity Taylor and Cory Campbell Metamorphosis Frederick Livingston Chapter 14: Warrior and Weaver Work Rebekah Mende Chapter 15: Sustaining Oases Rima Green and Erika Rumbley Chapter 16: Liberatory Spaces in Prison Raquel Pinderhughes, Josie Phoenix, and Patrick Gazeley-Romney
Part III: Outside Meet Needs, Meet Growth Stephanie Moniz Chapter 17: Preparing for What’s Next Through Farming and Community Kristen Powers and Linda Cayton Chapter 18: The Canoe Project Elizabeth Hawes Chapter 19: Food and Community as Disruptive Methodology Kelsey Timler and Nyki Kish Chapter 20: Growing Community Beyond the Fence Sam Phillips and Daniela Jauk-Ajamie Chapter 21: Therapeutic Horticulture as an Intervention with Women Who Have Experienced Abuse and Intimate Partner Violence Claire Renzetti, Diane Follingstad, Rachel Reeves and Caihing Li Chapter 22: Losing Paul and Finding Him in the Cardinal Judith Foster Son to Mother Brian Auclair Chapter 23: Becoming Ecosystem Participants Jarid Manos and Abiodun Henderson
Conclusion Matthew DelSesto Afterword Matthew Delsesto, Daniela Jauk-Ajamie, Elizabeth Lara, and Shea Zwerver Notes on Contributors
MATTHEW DELSESTO is the coordinator for the Initiative for Community Justice and Engaged Pedagogy at Boston College where he also teaches in the sociology department. He has worked as an educator in prisons and jails for more than twelve years and developed a number of collaborative projects with community-based organizations. His research and practice have been funded by the National Science Foundation, Hearst Foundations, and Center for Human Rights and International Justice. He is the author of Design and the Social Imagination (2022).
DANIELA JAUK-AJAMIE is an assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice studies at the University of Akron, Ohio. She is a certified clinical sociologist and serves on the board of the American Association of Applied and Clinical Sociology (AACS). She co-authored the book Gardening Behind Bars: Clinical Sociology and Food Justice in Incarcerated Settings (2024).
ELIZABETH LARA currently works as a garden educator, Dodger Stadium tour guide (with a specialization on the botanic garden tour), a facilitator for a domestic violence intervention program, and a freelance gardener. Her academic research focuses on gardens and horticultural history in current and former sites of incarceration in California. Her work “Prison Gardens and Growing Abolition” has been published in the edited collection The Promise of Multispecies Justice (2022).
SHEA ZWERVER works to bring nature to carceral settings, increase access to nature to promote prosocial behavior, and improve quality of life through equity-driven practices. From 2016 to 2022, she served in multiple roles with Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. There, she conceptualized and coordinated a vocational and educational training program–the “Correctional Conservation Collaboration” at state prisons in arboriculture, forestry, and natural resource conservation.
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