Death Row Conditions Through an Environmental Justice Lens

Glenn Ford lived on death row at Louisiana State Penitentiary for twenty-nine years, three months and five days. Typically, he was confined in his cell for at least twenty-three hours of a given day, seven days a week. Glenn was convicted of the armed robbery and murder of Isadore Rozeman. After prosecutors Martin Stroud and Carey Schimpf used six of their eight peremptory challenges to exclude African-Americans from the jury venire, Glenn was sentenced to death in 1984 by an allwhite jury. He was a devoted friend to many and, to the extent possible given his incarceration, a committed father and grandfather. Glenn Ford was released in March 2014 after the state conceded that he was wrongly convicted of armed robbery and murder. During his decades on death row, he was involuntarily exposed to hazardous chemicals, sewage, toxic mold, excessive heat, rust, and lead

Organizational Adaptation in Local Stormwater Governance

Much of the past research and policy analysis on issues of western water has focused on inter-basin river agreements, large infrastructure that captures and distributes water, and conflict between agricultural and urban water demands. My dissertation asks a set of different questions: How is water governed and managed within communities of Utah? How are the organizations that manage water responding to changes in population, water availability, and water quality policy? The answers to these questions are essential for understanding the ways in which changes to water quantity and quality will be addressed in the present and coming years. To better understand the ways in which local water management organizations, including irrigation groups and municipalities, manage water in Utah, I conducted three major types of research activities. First, in 2013, I attended 18 meetings of local water management organizations and conducted 18 interviews of organization representatives that managed water within the Heber and Cache Valleys of northern Utah. In 2014, I built upon the knowledge learned in the 2013 observations and interviews, and conducted an online survey of stormwater managers throughout the state of Utah. To build upon survey responses, I then conducted 30 follow-up interviews of stormwater managers that represented municipal stormwater programs. This research was funded with a combination of support from the National Science Foundation’s iUTAH EPSCoR project (iutahepscor.org) and funds from the Utah Storm Water Advisory Committee, a group that represents municipal stormwater programs at the state level. My findings suggest that local water management organizations are already responding to growth and expansion in urban land use, rising uncertainties in water supplies, and shifting responsibilities for stormwater governance and management toward local governments. To cope with these changes, organizations are using a combination of strategies, including working with private consultants and collaborating with one another. With increasing pressures from environmental change and added responsibilities through decentralized water policies, it is expected that these adaptive strategies will persist or even spread to other local water management organizations yet to take on these behaviors

The Relationship of Health Literacy and Locus of Control to Medication Compliance in Older African Americans.

ABSTRACT Many older African American adults have inadequate health literacy and are more likely to have chronic illnesses needing medication therapy. African Americans continue to experience significant health disparities in the incidences of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. It was postulated that ethnic disparities in medication compliance are related to a dynamic interplay between low health literacy and health locus of control. Thirty older African Americans taking at least one prescription medication were interviewed. Although the vast majority was well-educated, only 53% displayed adequate health literacy. Most of the participants believed they controlled their health, and over half were noncompliant with their medications. Poor health literacy and health locus of control appeared to influence medication compliance in older African Americans

The Missing Link: Jail and Prison Conditions in Criminal JusticeReform

The article examines the link between conditions in jails and prisons and broader criminal justice reform efforts

Slavery Revisited in Penal Plantation Labor

This Article argues that society must critically examine the types of labor we require our inmates to perform and prohibit the imposition of slavery, even when the enslaved is an inmate. Part II focuses on the text and history of Section 1 of the Thirteenth Amendment11 and argues that the Amendment’s exception allowing forced inmate labor is not as broad as it first appears. Part III examines the Eighth Amendment and how the imposition of slave status on inmates should be considered cruel and unusual punishment. Lastly, Part IV applies these concepts to the history and operation of one such penal plantation, Louisiana State Penitentiary. This Article concludes by cautioning legislatures and prison wardens to be more cognizant of the inherent harms in selecting certain types of labor for inmates and will hopefully spark a broader public discussion on when inmate labor may be another form of slavery

Slavery Revisited in Penal Plantation Labor

This Article argues that society must critically examine the types of labor we require our inmates to perform and prohibit the imposition of slavery, even when the enslaved is an inmate. Part II focuses on the text and history of Section 1 of the Thirteenth Amendment11 and argues that the Amendment’s exception allowing forced inmate labor is not as broad as it first appears. Part III examines the Eighth Amendment and how the imposition of slave status on inmates should be considered cruel and unusual punishment. Lastly, Part IV applies these concepts to the history and operation of one such penal plantation, Louisiana State Penitentiary. This Article concludes by cautioning legislatures and prison wardens to be more cognizant of the inherent harms in selecting certain types of labor for inmates and will hopefully spark a broader public discussion on when inmate labor may be another form of slavery

The Relationship of Personal Characteristics, Behavorial Capability, Environmental Factors, and Hypertension Medication Adherence in African American Adults with Metabolic Syndrome

Disparities in medication adherence (MA) associated with African American (AA) adults may be related to a dynamic interplay between personal factors, behavioral capability, and environmental factors. The purpose of the study was to examine this relationship in AA adults with metabolic syndrome (MetS). A cross-sectional, correlational analysis was conducted from baseline data from a larger intervention study. Constructs from the Social Cognitive Theory were used to predict MA. The sample of 91 AA adults with MetS was primarily middle-aged (age range 45-70 years old; M 53, SD 6.3), female (79%), relatively well-educated, and married. Despite being on antihypertensive medications, 53% of the participants presented with uncontrolled high blood pressure (≥130/90 mmHg). Although the vast majority (95%) of the sample displayed adequate health literacy (HL), 30% of the sample was non-adherent to their medication regimen. A positive significant relationship was found between age and MA [χ2 (1, n = 90) = 6.71, p = .01)]. Stress [χ2 (1, n = 90) = 6.28, p = .012)] and social support (SS) [χ2 (1, n = 90) = 4.10, p = .04)] were the only significant relationships among environmental factors, barriers and hypertension MA. Highly stressed AA adults were significantly more likely to be non-adherent or had a 15% reduction in the odds of hypertension MA. Similarly, adults with a low income were 5.8 times more likely to be non-adherent (OR 5.828, 95% CI, 1.014-33.493, p= .0482), while those with low SS had a 9% reduction in the odds of MA; SS trended toward significance (OR.914. 95% CI .823-1.016, p =.09). With increasing age, AA adults were more likely to be non-adherent (OR 1.12, 95% CI 1.028-1.220, p =.0096). Most of the participants reported a high degree of autonomy, satisfaction with their health care climate, and the availability of SS. Although increasing age, adequate SS, high stress, and adequate HL appeared to influence MA in AA adults with MetS, the research questions were only partially answered. Further investigation of the relationships and potential mediating pathways between personal characteristics, environmental factors, behavioral capability and hypertension MA in AA adults with MetS is needed

Creating sustainable communities in 'NewcastleGateshead'

This thesis focuses on one of the most controversial and ambitious urban regeneration policies of recent years – the plan to create sustainable communities via Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders (HMRP). Announced as a ‘step change’ in urban policy to overcome problems of low demand and abandonment experienced most acutely in nine former industrial towns and cities in the north and midlands of England, the Sustainable Communities Plan (SCP) (ODPM, 2003a) involves the demolition and relocation of mainly white, working class inner-urban communities. This thesis focuses on a year long moment in the process of regeneration in one such HMRP in North East England, known as ‘Bridging NewcastleGateshead’ (BNG) and draws from rich, detailed ethnographic case studies of three former industrial communities. Originally, the thesis draws together critical engagements with the concepts of space, governance, community, sustainability and materiality to develop a relational understanding of urban regeneration. Starting with an understanding of ‘spaces of regeneration’ as spaces in the process of becoming this perspective moves beyond normative, prescriptive understandings of spaces as static and contained and subject to the process of spatial regulation from above i.e. power over. Rather than a straightforward process of spatial regulation to transform people and places, the process of regeneration involves uncertainties, negotiations, contestations and emotions between the multiple social, material, economic and environmental networks. The thesis has drawn together urban theories and empirical evidence (including historical and contemporary policy analysis as well as a range of qualitative methods) to illustrate the relational transformation of people and places. Governmentality provides the main conceptual framework. This leads to an in-depth exploration of the rationalities and technologies of urban regeneration from three perspectives in the empirical chapters - governing communities, demolishing communities and transforming communities