Thank you to the hundreds of Kentuckians who took action and demanded a better use of half a billion dollars in federal funding than an unnecessary prison in a county still recovering from the devastating 2022 floods.
For decades, Sierra Club has been fighting the practice of mountaintop removal mining and its disastrous effects on the environment and communities across Appalachia. Now Sierra Club is supporting Letcher County residents who are fighting to stop a reforested and reclaimed mountaintop in Roxana from being cleared and cemented over to build Eastern Kentucky’s fourth federal prison, FCI Letcher. The Federal Bureau of Prisons is targeting this reclaimed mining site for further exploitation under an empty promise of economic development that will destroy over 120 acres of forest habitat and two acres of wetlands, endangering watersheds and wildlife.
Follow the action:
- Email sarah.reeves@sierraclub.org to be added to the communication list and receive an invitation to our next community conversation.
- Follow Building Community Not Prisons (@nonewletcherprison) on Instagram
- Follow Concerned Letcher Countians on Facebook and Instagram
Learn more about the issue:
- Read: Coal, Cages, Crisis: The Rise of the Prison Economy in Central Appalachia by Judah Schept
- Listen: WMMT Mountain Talk Podcast, Appalachian Rekindling Project Buy Land Where FBOP Plans to Build Prison
- Watch: Check out the recording of our virtual meeting: Save the Mountains, Stop the Prison!
What Is Happening Now...
January 2025 Update
Indigenous group buys 63 acres in proposed prison site, offers different vision for E. KY land
Coalition opposing another federal prison in Appalachia helped with purchase
By: Liam Niemeyer - January 23, 2025
An Indigenous group seeking to restore and reclaim Appalachian land recently purchased 63 acres within the boundaries of a proposed federal prison in Letcher County with the support of a coalition of groups opposing the prison project.The Appalachian ReKindling Project (ARP), which describes itself as an Indigenous, women-led community building and land restoration group, purchased the land “to provide an alternative to the harms of incarceration” by restoring the former strip mine land through “Indigenous land rematriation practices” according to a release.
That vision for the land, according to the co-executive director of ARP who grew up in Letcher County, had to be something that was “going to invite our community to be a part of the work and “have an economically thriving option.”
The facts you should know about the politics of prisons in Kentucky
