THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

Say you have some land next to a toxic waste site. Say you need a new prison. Where will you build that new prison,, why right next to that toxic waste site, even if politics makes you pay full price for the land.But watch out for the adverse health results.

The prison is located on an old strip-mining site in Western Pennsylvania’s coal fields adjacent to a dump for fly ash, the powdery residue left over from coal combustion. The property is owned by Matt Canestrale Contracting, but First Energy is one of the largest customers.

Since the prison’s opening adjacent to the long-time dump, cancers and other assorted illnesses that are rare among the general population have become statistically — and significantly — higher among inmates at SCI Fayette.

Watchdog group the Abolitionist Law Center conducted a 12-month investigation into the health impacts of fly ash on inmates at La Belle, a tiny town nestled at the bottom of a hill in a bend in the Monongahela River. Their findings showed that 81 percent of the inmates suffer from some sort of respiratory distress, including sores, cysts and tumors in the nose, mouth and throat.

Sixty-eight percent of responding prisoners experienced gastrointestinal problems, including heart burn, stomach pains, diarrhea, ulcers, ulcerative colitis, bloody stools, and vomiting. Fifty-two percent reported experiencing adverse skin conditions, including painful rashes, hives, cysts, and abscesses.

“Prisoners had no idea what was going on with the hill across the yard from them,” said Dustin McDaniel, the director of the Abolitionist Law Center. They were first notified by a prisoner’s letter alerting them to the deteriorating conditions inside SCI Fayette.

“Since my transfer to this facility on Feb. 14, 2012, I’ve had to endure numerous medical problems: rashes throughout my body that hurt and keep me up all night. Extreme swelling of various parts including my throat making it difficult to breathe. My face would swell, and pictures were taken showing the condition of my eyes. And my vision still has not returned fully to them. I have required emergency medical treatment eight times due to the swelling of my face and throat,” inmate Marcos Santos told the Center.

In many ways, McDaniel said, the inmate illnesses at La Belle are not surprising.

“The practice of putting a prison on brownfields or on otherwise environmentally poisonous lands is not unusual. The way the prison system and construction process works is that people that are being put in these prisons are considered ‘garbage.’ We are just going to put them in there and forget about them. That is something that happens all across the country,” he said.

Let's face it, the value of the prisoners lives ended when they were arrested, even if they are only in for a few years. And the prison staff aren't really worth any more so putting the prison on a deadly waste site eliminates the dregs quietly, if not quickly. And, of course, officially there is nothing harmful in the air or water in the prison.