A two-prison complex was constructed in the California city of Corcoran, a poor agricultural community in the Central Valley, in a dry lakebed—previously Tulare Lake, the largest body of freshwater west of the Mississippi. When the first facility was built, the Department of Corrections convinced lawmakers to exempt it from environmental law. Fast-forward several decades, and the two prisons at Corcoran now houses 8,000 people—the largest incarcerated population in the state. California’s wet 2022-23 winter resulted in a record-high Sierra snowpack—great for drought conditions, but a threat to the state’s agricultural interior, bringing epic flooding to the region. In this longform comic—the first of its kind at The Marshall Project—journalist and illustrator Susie Cagle chronicles how decades-old decisions to hastily build the prisons has put thousands of incarcerated people at risk.
(The excerpted text below is integrated and displayed within illustrations in the story.)
We can be prepared.
That’s a choice the state can make and it is choosing not to.
Emily Harris is Co-Director of Programs at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and advisor on a report on climate hazards facing California prisons.
A lot of the California prisons are located in remote areas, they have aging infrastructure, and a long history of overcrowding.
It’s very clear that people in prison are distinctly vulnerable.
Corrections says it has plans in place to deal with climate emergencies at its facilities.
As the incarceration rate drops, the department says it is prioritizing prisons for closure based on factors mandated by state law.
Those factors do no include environmental hazards or climate change.
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