This article examines the ways in which sustainability discourses intersect with carceral\udpolicies. Building new prisons to ‘green’ industry standards; making existing prison buildings\udless environmentally harmful; incorporating processes such as renewable energy initiatives;\udoffering ‘green-collar’ work and training to prisoners; and providing ‘green care’ in an effort to\udreduce recidivism, are all provided as evidence of ‘green’ strategies that shape the experience of\udprisoners, prison staff and the communities in which prisons are located. But although usually\udportrayed positively, this article proposes an alternative, potentially more contentious,\udinterpretation of the green prison. In the context of mounting costs of incarceration, we suggest\udthat green discourses perversely are fast becoming symbolic and material structures that frame\udand support mass imprisonment. Consequently, we argue, it may be the penal complex, rather\udthan the environment, which is being ‘sustained’. Moreover, we suggest this is a topic worthy of\udattention from ‘green criminologists’.
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