ABSTRACT
This article provides an overview of police violence against Black people and mass incarceration that demonstrates that mass incarceration and police violence simultaneously produce and represent important forms of environmental inequality. Specifically, the article shows that in heavily policed communities, police violence is a critical aspect of the environment inseparable from the fabric of daily life. Thus, disproportionate police violence against Black people is itself an important form of environmental inequality. It further shows that police violence greatly increases Black people's exposure to other environmental harms while significantly decreasing their access to many environmental amenities. Finally, it demonstrates that biased policing and mass incarceration produce environmental inequality by disproportionately confining Black people to environmentally unjust spaces and by increasing their exposure to specific diseases that, we argue, are key features of the social and built environment. Differential morbidity and mortality from the coronavirus disease, which has hit Black communities particularly hard, are thus significant forms of environmental inequality that are strongly shaped by police violence and mass incarceration.