Prisons

Conceptual rendering of Rikers Island redevelopment as renewable energy facility

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?

August 24, 2023 - Mark McNulty

Crowd of activists protesting conditions at Rikers Island with one woman in front speaking into microphone

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.

November 8, 2022 - Time Out NY

Coronavirus

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.

January 25, 2021 - NPR

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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.

December 16, 2020 - The Architect's Newspaper

Georgia Protest

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.

April 21, 2020 - The New York Times

COVID-19

A Cheer (Or Maybe Even Two) For Redundancy

Is government too efficient to protect us from epidemics?

April 6, 2020 - Michael Lewyn

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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.

June 13, 2019 - Penn IUR Urban Link

NYC Health and Hospitals

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.

August 8, 2018 - Urban Omnibus

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.

January 29, 2018 - Metropolis Magazine

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.

November 3, 2013 - The Atlantic

empty parking lot of Eastvale, California's best buy and kohl's, mountains in background

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.

September 19, 2013 - Bloomberg News

Architectures for Art and Crime

Art, architecture, and incarceration collide in essays on prison design from the Panopticon to the Golden Gulag.

July 16, 2013 - Places Journal

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.

December 6, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

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."

October 3, 2010 - Utne Reader

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.

August 30, 2010 - Correctional News

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.

March 15, 2010 - Citiwire

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.

October 7, 2009 - The New York Times

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.

June 16, 2009 - The New York Times

City Twitters

The City of Santee is using Twitter and Facebook to protest a planned prison expansion on nearby county land.

June 9, 2009 - San Diego Union-Tribune

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.

March 5, 2009 - The New York Times

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