Trashing Appalachia: Coal, prisons and whiteness in a region of refuse

Abstract

While prisons are often seen as locally undesirable land uses (LULUs), nuance and historical analysis is needed to understand why this is not the case for all places, as well as why many of these “sites of acceptance” are layered upon legacies of resource extraction and environmental degradation. Central Appalachia has seen a shift from coalfields to prisonfields in the past three decades as policymakers turn to the incarceration industry to stem unemployment and depopulation as coal mining declines. Using the conceptual lens of trash, I contend that the literal trashing of the ecosystems of this region has been fostered by the metaphorical representation of Appalachians as “white trash.” In turn, the space is now viewed as a logical location for the deposition of “societal castoffs” in the form of prisoners.