WASHINGTON (CN) – A $444 million plan to build a new federal prison in a sensitive region of Appalachia ravaged by coal-mining operations drew a lawsuit Monday from 21 inmates.
Expected to house a population of 1,216, the new U.S. penitentiary would sit in a hamlet of Letcher County, Kentucky, that is otherwise home to fewer than 100 people. The 56-page complaint from attorneys at the Abolitionist Law Center labels this site a public health risk, however, because a mountain peak was literally lopped off the land years earlier so that it could be mined for coal.
Mountain-top removal, or MTR as this type of mining is colloquially known, was used throughout Appalachia, according to the complaint, “not because it was necessary but because it was the cheapest way to access coal in the area.”
“Development of the project would permanently degrade the already vulnerable environment,” the complaint states. “It requires clear-cutting over 120 acres of forest habitat for endangered bat species, excavating and grading an additional 59 acres, destroying three acres of wetlands, building an entirely new wastewater utility in the region, and emitting thousands of pounds of additional greenhouse gas emissions.”
Joined by 20 fellow inmates, lead plaintiff Robert Barroca brought the suit in Washington, D.C. They say the construction plans demand court intervention because the Bureau of Prisons shirked its responsibilities under the National Environmental Protection Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.
“Despite the clear and uncontroverted public health risks that communities in close proximity to MTR sites face, the BOP without a reasonable and legal justification continues to move forward with its plan to build USP Letcher and unnecessarily risk the health of its employees and inmates in its custody and control,” the complaint states.
Though a spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing a policy regarding pending litigation, the agency noted in April that it was moving ahead with plans to purchase land in the hamlet of Roxana for the high-security facility.
Some county residents, haunted by the economic downturn of a failing Appalachian coal industry, are eager to see the prison built. In an editorial for the Herald Ledger, Letcher County Planning Commission Elwood Cornett asked critics “what solutions they have to offer that will create over 300 sustainable, well-paying jobs in a region that is struggling to rebound?”
U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers has touted the jobs that a prison will create as well, but Monday’s complaint says several Department of Justice officials have testified before Congress “that it does not need to build USP Letcher to address overcrowding issues in the Mid-Atlantic Region.”
“Consequently, the only sensible reason that seems to support the BOP’s decision is to satisfy Representative Hal Rogers’ pork barrel politics so that federal tax dollars can be spent on construction and development contracts with his constituents,” the complaint continues.
Kentucky, with a median income of $29,000 and 31 percent of its population living in poverty, lags behind other states when it comes to jobs: the state’s unemployment rate is 4.5 percent compared with the 3.7 percent national average.