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40 Pace Env't L. Rev. 1 (2022-2023)

handle is hein.journals/penv40 and id is 1 raw text is: Volume 40 Fall 2022 Number 1 PACE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW ARTICLE What Makes It a Just Transition? A Case Study of Renewable Rikers REBECCA BRATSPIES* The timefor connecting the dots on climate change and incarceration was yes- terday.1 Try harder.2 Intro d uctio n ......................................................................................... . 2 1. The Clim ate Crisis ............................................................. . 3 II. W hat is a Just Transition?................................................. . 6 III. A Just Transition Must Tackle the Incarceration Crisis.........11 A. The US Leads the World in Incarceration (by a lot)..........13 B. There Are Profound Racial Imbalances in Who Gets Incarcerated....................................................................15 C. Cash Bail Exacerbated Racial Inequality ...........................18 IV. Renewable Rikers as a Case Study for a Just Transition....... 22 A. Some Background on the Rikers Island Correctional Facility ................................................................................. . 2 3 *Professor, CUNY School of Law, Director Center for Urban Environmental Reform. This essay benefitted from research help from Natasha Bynum and Megan Carr, as well as feedback and suggestions from Melissa lachan, Sarita Daftary, and other members of the #CloseRikers cam- paign. A special thank you to research librarians Jonathan Saxon and Kathy Williams for get- ting me some hard-to-obtain sources, and to artist and CUNY Law student Jill Sigman for her creative dance-based advocacy work which can be found at https://www.renewable- dance.com/. Readers interested in the ongoing campaign to #CLOSERikers can find updated information at https://www.campaigntocloserikers.org/. 1. Nadia B. Ahmad, The Cliodynamics of Mass Incarceration, Climate Change and Chains on our Feet, 49 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 371, 391 (2022). 2. Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados at the Opening of the #COP26 World Lead- ers Summit, YOUTUBE, at 7:59 (Nov. 1, 2021), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN6THYZ4ngM [https://perma.cc/D6NU-JE4E]. 1

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