Prisons
Can New York City Go Green Without Renewable Rikers?
New York City’s bold proposal to close the jail on Rikers Island and replace it with green infrastructure is in jeopardy. Will this compromise the city’s ambitious climate goals?
Envisioning a Sustainable Future for Rikers Island
With the prison complex slated to close by 2027, the city has an opportunity to transform the island into a renewable energy and research hub.
An American Lockdown
Words matter. Road safety advocates know that "crashes are not accidents." Similarly, calling coronavirus restrictions "lockdowns," fails to distinguish the severity among public health orders. On January 6, America experienced a true lockdown.
AIA Updates Ethics Code to Prohibit Design of Facilities Used for Solitary Confinement, Execution
Advocates in the design industries have been pushing for years for the American Institute of Architects to take a stance on how prisons are designed.
States Take Steps to Reopen Regardless of White House Guideline Criteria
Governors of several states announced initial steps to reopen their economies even though their COVID-19 caseloads are not meeting the criteria that they show a decline for two weeks, according to White House reopening guidelines issued April 16.
A Cheer (Or Maybe Even Two) For Redundancy
Is government too efficient to protect us from epidemics?
Eastern State Penitentiary: A Class about the Past Speaks to the Present and the Future
Built as an embodiment of the ideals of prison reformers, the Eastern State Penitentiary had running water and central heating before the White House, and housed the first synagogue built in an American prison.
Where Care Meets Confinement
For doctors trying to provide mental health care to people who are incarcerated or detained by the New York City Department of Corrections, city jails pose a challenge — and provide an opportunity.
A $48 Million Bet on the 'L.A. Model' of Juvenile Justice
With Campus Kilpatrick, Los Angeles County has made a serious investment in progressive design to support progressive programming.
This California Jail is Off the Grid
The Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, California isn’t your average prison complex. Its independent power system, or microgrid, sets it apart from its peers—and saves an estimated $100,000 a year.
Why Four of California's Newest Cities May Soon Dissolve
All four are in Riverside County (east of LA). Reduced vehicle license fees, shifting funds from cities to prisons and a huge state budget deficit created the perfect storm to drain expected revenues. Hope was placed in a bill to fix it.
Architectures for Art and Crime
Art, architecture, and incarceration collide in essays on prison design from the Panopticon to the Golden Gulag.
Unlocking Ideas for Re-Purposing America's Prisons
The good news - America is closing its prisons. The bad news - America is closing its prisons. Emily Badger asks how "all these empty, peculiar and often isolated buildings" can be reused.
Secret Prisons in Suburbia
Earlier this year, The Nation uncovered that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) holds people in 186 under-the-radar "subfield offices," which the less generous might call "secret immigration detention centers."
Californian Official Fights Proposed Death Row Project
Bids are open for a new Death Row facility in California, but local lawmakers opposed to the project say that companies shouldn't even waste their time bidding on a project that won't be built.
How Prisoners Skew the Census
At Census time, America's prisoners have typically been counted as residents of the places they are imprisoned. But with nearly 1% of the U.S. population behind bars, where they're counted is counting more to the urban areas they came from.
Immigration Detention Hotels?
Homeland Security is looking to change the way the detention of nonviolent undocumented immigrants is handled. Among the ideas for a more appropriate detention system: converting hotels and nursing homes to hold people who are not accused of crimes.
Well-Designed Prison, Well-Behaved Prisoners
A prison design in Austria that emphasizes inmate comfort and dignity raises questions about the role architecture and design plays in preventing or encouraging more crime.
City Twitters
The City of Santee is using Twitter and Facebook to protest a planned prison expansion on nearby county land.
From Concrete Box to LEED-Certified
Prisons around the country are looking less and less like the typical concrete box; Washington state has 34 LEED-certified prisons, some of which offer "green work" programs.
Placer County
City of Morganton
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Dongguan Binhaiwan Bay Area Management Committee
City of Waukesha, WI
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Indiana Borough
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
