Poisoned together in prison: Toxicant politics, disposability and carceral capitalism in testimonies of electronic & military waste recycling in a sunbelt Gulag

Based on original field research, this article explores ‘recycling’ processes at a US Federal Corrections Institution (FCI) in the ‘sunbelt’ of the United States. There, an electronic waste (e-waste) recycling program relies on incarcerated inmates to disassemble, reclaim and organize disposal of computers, monitors, televisions, copy machines, cell phones and a plethora of other devices. Contributing to the intersection of energy/environmental justice, abolition studies, and toxic geographies, this article argues that carceral capitalism tends towards the toxification of inmates and guards. The article seeks to formally connect energy studies, or energy transition research, to the energy/environmental (in)justices of prisons. Carceral capitalism, this article argues, cultivates toxification and, thereby, affirms a culture of degradation and disposability. The toxic reality of prisoner electronic recycling spreads poisons along ethnic and class lines, slowly perpetuating an uneven system of accumulation by contamination. Drawn from a case study of Federal Prison Industries (UNICOR), the article describes the hazardous operation of an FCI e-waste recycling program, showcasing how government waste turns to profit only at the expense of creating sacrifice zones of toxic contamination and profiteering and preserving corruption. The article illustrates that capitalist modernity is inherently poisonous and that it presents acute exposure to some of the most vulnerable populations in society, treating incarcerated inmates almost as disposable as the electronic devices they are disassembling.