04.22.05 Prison Design Boycott
"I believe that too many people are being incarcerated and that our society must immediately develop and implement alternatives to incarceration. I believe in creating design for a society with real security and social justice for all, and I will not contribute my design to the perpetuation of wrongful institutions that abuse others. In recognition of the deep injustice of the present prison system, I pledge not to do any work that furthers the construction of prisons or jails."
--Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility
Prison Design Boycott Pledge
 Today's issue is about an initiative by Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR), asking architects to boycott prison design work. This topic is incredibly complex, which is not the same thing as saying that it's unclear. While more information about the boycott as well as the realities and consequences of prison construction in the U.S. follows below, we're focusing our introduction on what we at ArchVoices believe this boycott is about... and what it isn't about.
First, the boycott is not about absolving criminal offenders or minimizing their crimes. ADPSR simply suggests that, at 6-10 times the capacity of virtually all industrialized democracies, the U.S. already has enough prison space. The vast majority of prison cells were built or renovated in the last twenty years.
Second, the boycott is not about demonizing those architects who choose to work on criminal justice facilities or those who support that work. Individual professionals make difficult choices every day, and there are good-faith reasons to do so for both personal and professional reasons. Instead, ADPSR's efforts have actually raised the profile of prison architects by raising awareness of a particular industry that is often hidden from public view. ADPSR's President, Raphael Sperry, has met with a number of prison architects around the country; next week, he will be on a public panel with one in San Francisco.
From ArchVoices' perspective, the ADPSR prison boycott is about the need to identify long-term, sustainable solutions to the unreasonably high percentage of people--6 to 10 times the percentage of industrial democracies--incarcerated in a country nicknamed, "The Land of the Free." While stopping prison construction entirely is admittedly not a long-term solution, it is one that architects can uniquely affect. Rather than simply accepting the status quo, ADPSR suggests that architects can and should engage in this public policy debate.
Additionally, we believe that ADPSR's boycott highlights a more general discussion that can help to reinvigorate the profession: that is, discussion about designers' ethical responsibilities for the projects we choose to build and the industries we choose to perpetuate. We have heard architects say about affordable housing issues that, "There's nothing we can do. We don't make decisions about what to build." Those architects who claim that this proud profession is powerless to drive specific social change are small-minded and embarrassing. So many people want you to take responsibility for yourself and your career, but so few take responsibility for anything larger than themselves. Prison design may not be a subject on which you take action, or this boycott may not be the means with which you do so. But ADPSR is providing genuine leadership for architects and designers on an issue of significance. We hope you are doing the same.
1. About the ADPSR Campaign
2. ADPSR: The Prison Crisis
3. ADPSR Prison Design Boycott Pledge
4. But Crime Has Gone Down. Isn't That a Good Thing?
5. Quality versus Quantity
6. If We Build It, They Will Come
7. Shouldn't We Boycott Highways and Maybe Strip Malls Then Too?
8. Are Prisons the Chicken or the Egg?
9. Just One More (Cell) Block
10. Okay, We Stop Building Prisons. Then What?
11. Prison Campaign Poster Design Competition
12. AIA San Francisco Panel Discussion on Prison Design
13. About ADPSR
14. Additional Resource Links
1. About the ADPSR Campaign
"Many architects, designers, and planners already refuse to do prison work as an informal policy. ADPSR hopes that by marshalling the collective voice of the design professionals who feel this way, we can raise awareness of the problems with the prison system. We also hope that other design professionals who don't yet know about prisons will learn about the issue and take our pledge. Please forward this campaign to your colleagues who might support it or consider it-it is only through the participation of each individual of conscience that this campaign can succeed.
You may be wondering how this campaign can work given that some architecture firms clearly depend on prison work and are unlikely to give it up voluntarily. ADPSR acknowledges that it will take more than our speaking up to change the prison system, but we also know that without our voice needed changes will not happen. There are many dedicated and courageous individuals and organizations that are working to reveal, challenge, and overturn the injustices of the prison-industrial complex (see links). Through their work, we at ADPSR have been able to learn about the prison system and direct this challenge to it. Citing the collective pledge of hundreds or thousands of thoughtful and respected professionals will be a major asset to the work of other policy and advocacy organizations that work with government bodies and the news media. As we speak up and share our thoughts on our professional connections with the prison system, we can make others aware of how it affects their lives and our society as a whole." Visit http://www.adpsr.org/prisons/about.htm for more information about the campaign generally or visit http://www.adpsr.org/prisons/press.htm for other press stories about the campaign.
2. ADPSR: The Prison Crisis
"Over the past twenty years, the prison population of the United States has grown seven-fold (700%), even though our total population has increased only 20% and our crime rate has decreased. With our total imprisoned population now over 2,000,000, we incarcerate more people per capita than any other country that publishes statistics on prisons, even Russia. The state of California alone has built 20 new prisons since 1980 with other states and the Federal government following suit." Click here for more information.
3. ADPSR Prison Design Boycott Pledge
Criminal justice and incarceration are complex issues, combining both reason and passion in important but often unhelpful ways. The core issue that ADPSR wants you to consider is whether you personally agree with the three sentences that comprise the paragraph below:
"I believe that too many people are being incarcerated and that our society must immediately develop and implement alternatives to incarceration. I believe in creating design for a society with real security and social justice for all, and I will not contribute my design to the perpetuation of wrongful institutions that abuse others. In recognition of the deep injustice of the present prison system, I pledge not to do any work that furthers the construction of prisons or jails." As of April 19, 2005, 244 people had signed this pledge. To see who, visit http://www.adpsr.org/prisons/signerlist.htm. Click here to pledge.
4. But Crime has Gone Down. Isn't That a Good Thing?
In a word, yes. But the relationship between incarceration rates and crime is inconsistent. Although crime rates nationally went down significantly between 1991 and 1998, that decrease doesn't correspond with higher rates of incarceration. If national statistics are broken down by state, there is no correlation between those states that dramatically increased incarceration and those that most dramatically decreased crime. West Virginia increased incarceration rates by 131 percent and saw a 4 percent drop in crime; Maine increased incarceration just 2 percent and achieved a 19 percent drop in crime.
There is a deceptively simple logic to the idea that putting more people in prison for longer sentences results in lower crime. To the extent that there is a correlation, it is at best a short-term solution at an exceedingly high cost, both socially and economically. Our concern is where this abstract logic leads us. Higher crime? We need more prisons. Lower crime? Still more prisons. Indeed, during the period 1985-1998 crime rates increased during the first half and then declined during the second half, while incarceration and prison construction increased continuously over that period.
5. Quality versus Quantity
Perhaps the most compelling response to this campaign by those architects who want to continue to design prisons is that "somebody's going to design these prisons with or without us, and we can do it better." Essentially, the ADPSR campaign focuses exclusively on the quantity of facilities, while many prison designers understandably choose to emphasize the quality.
In this regard, highways again provide a meaningful analogy. Qualitatively, during the 1950's the U.S. surely developed some of the most joyous, speedy, and safe highways in the world. These highways were the result of the efforts of many well-intentioned professionals. But the construction of even the best highways continued to divide and destroy a great many established, thriving (and livable) communities. Quality and quantity are not always separate considerations.
The U.S. surely has some of the best, most efficient and safest prisons in the world. Prison architects have spent the past thirty years increasing the quality of prisons while the quantity has also skyrocketed. The concern is the impact that each additional facility, no matter how well-designed, has for our society as a whole. ADPSR surely supports quality prison facilities. They simply believe that we have enough.
6. If We Build it, They Will Come
"A bed for every inmate and an inmate for every bed." --Corporate motto of Inmate Placement Services, a private inmate brokering firm U.S. prisons are overcrowded. A 1996 Department of Justice report put state facilities at roughly 116% of capacity and federal facilities at 125%. These statistics would suggest that we actually need more, not fewer, architects designing prisons.
There is, however, at least a plausible argument that we cannot build ourselves out of the problem of prison capacity. At least one prominent General Accounting Office (GAO) study showed that the single best predictor of the number of people incarcerated in an area--including race, poverty, and education--was the sheer number of prison beds in that area. In other words, prison construction tends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
There is another type of construction for which the need is also often a self-fulfilling prophecy: highways. Cities add lanes to their highways and yet remain gridlocked. New highways actually attract new drivers. The mechanism for such attraction may be much the same for prisons as for highways. The prison industry lobbies against alternative sentencing and for minimum sentencing requirements, while the automobile industry lobbies against public transit and for gasoline and parking subsidies. The problem isn't that industries lobby in their own self-interest (our political and economic systems both rely on their doing so), but rather that the results often appear to be natural or unplanned.
The simple and intuitive logic of, "If we're overcrowded, then we should build more space," simply doesn't hold up to experience, either for highways or for prisons. As the corporate motto quoted above (and thirty years of experience) suggests, when we build more prisons we will find more prisoners to fill them. Spotlighting this relationship--and highlighting the unique role of architects in enabling this process--is one of the goals of the ADPSR campaign. ADPSR link: High Costs and Corruption
7. Shouldn't We Boycott Highways and Maybe Strip Malls Then Too?
One important difference between building prisons and building highways is the extent to which highways and strip malls are out in the open. Architects routinely talk knowledgeably about highways and strip malls in books and essays, at conferences, and over beers to anyone who will listen. By contrast, very few professionals have personal experience with the business end of the prison system, and those who do are loath to brag about it. The campaign to boycott prison design is intended to raise the issue and encourage architects to become more knowledgeable about an industry that depends greatly on unique physical facilities.
8. Are Prisons the Chicken or the Egg?
ADPSR Link: Prison Towns
Imprisonment is a necessary evil. People commit particularly heinous acts, and society responds by imprisoning them. If people didn't commit crimes, there would be no need for prisons. In this regard, the chicken definitely came first, and the egg second. But one concern about prisons today is precisely that it is not at all clear anymore to what extent criminals are driving prison policy, or the prisons are driving criminal justice policy.
Private corporations now own and operate enough prisons to constitute the third-largest state system in the U.S., behind California and Texas, and privatization is increasing. Although the total state inmate population grew 4.1 percent from 1999 to 2002, the number housed privately grew 9.1 percent. Whatever you think of the benefits of privatization, it undeniably creates a political interest group that didn't exist before. It is unconvincing and even inconsistent to think that these private companies are not actively advocating for growth in the prison system.
One especially disturbing trend has been the emergence of prisons built on "spec." Rather than wait for a state to identify the need for a new facility, locate the best site and then competitively bid out the project, private companies have begun building prisons first and then looking for inmates to fill them. The inmates are usually from one or more states, often not from the state where the prison is sited. The purchasers of spec prison space are typically governments desperate to relieve overcrowding. When overcrowding reaches a crisis state, a government will often enter into a sole-source emergency contract at a high per diem rate. These projects rely on overcrowding, even as they purport to relieve it.
Finally, prisons have replaced factories as the economic centerpiece of many small towns. The State of Florida recently promoted its prison-building spree with a color brochure claiming that an 1,100-bed prison is worth $25 million a year and 350 jobs to a community. Additionally, prisoners are counted as residents, and state tax dollars are typically awarded to communities based on residential population. As a result, rural communities with often minimal amounts of crime are pressuring states to build more prisons. Nationally, prisoners accounted for 5 percent of the increase in rural population between 1980 and 1990.
9. Just One More (Cell) Block
A carload of responsible adults drives into a city late at night and gets lost. One person has a map, another has a cell phone, and a third has a hazy memory of having been in the city before. They continue to drive, looking for familiar landmarks or information. Occasionally they think they've made progress, but hit dead ends. The driver suggests that they stop and ask directions, but the passengers all insist that if they just go to the next intersection, they'll get out of this mess. Certainly they've got a better chance of finding their way if they keep moving than if they stop.
Metaphorically speaking, ADPSR is the driver suggesting that we stop. By continually building prison capacity, society is just driving to the next intersection. "Just one more block, then we'll be fine." Meanwhile, otherwise genuine and serious attempts at identifying politically acceptable alternatives to incarceration are of limited effectiveness. Stopping the car forces us to take seriously our efforts at finding direction. ADPSR (we think) is not suggesting that we never get back in that car, or that we never build another prison. The prison boycott is simply about highlighting our immediate need for long-term rather than ad hoc solutions.
10. Okay, We Stop Building Prisons. Then What?
A legitimate question. This boycott is not intended to promote specific solutions, but to force an earnest discussion about solutions. However, we felt a duty at ArchVoices to at least provide you with some idea of what possible alternatives there might be. The following recommendations are from a report, Diminishing Returns: Crime and Incarceration in the 1990s, published by The Sentencing Project, a national non-profit organization engaged in research and advocacy on criminal justice policy issues. We have included them here not to suggest that we think these are the seven best things to do, but simply to give you an easy sample of some options, in someone else's words. Of note, their very first recommendation is to effect a moratorium on new prison construction. Full report available for download at http://www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/9039.pdf
"As our analysis of the relationship between incarceration and crime has shown, increased incarceration is increasingly less effective as a response to crime. To the extent that the prison population has reached record levels as a result of deliberate choices made by policy makers, a different set of choices can reduce crime to levels comparable to those of other democratic nations without imperiling public safety. The outline of such an approach to public policy includes the following:
-- Moratorium on Prison Construction -- During the past quarter century the United States has engaged in an unprecedented explosion of prison construction. Policymakers should implement a moratorium on new construction while alternative crime prevention and control measures are pursued.
-- Repeal Mandatory Sentencing -- Mandatory sentencing laws have been widely found to be ineffective for crime control objectives and have led to injustice and unfairness in sentencing. These laws should be fully reconsidered in regard to whether their stated goals can be justified.
-- Diversion of Non-Violent Offenders -- More than half the national inmate population is comprised of offenders convicted of non-violent drug and property offenses. Greater use of community supervision and resources could be employed to divert many of these offenders from prison.
-- Strengthen Juvenile Courts -- The trend toward increased prosecution and incarceration of juveniles in the adult criminal justice system has been found to severely disadvantage young offenders and to have no positive impact on recidivism. Juvenile courts should be given the necessary resources to handle all but exceptional cases within their jurisdiction.
-- Strengthen Probation and Parole -- Probation and parole services require sufficient support and redesign so that they constitute effective alternatives to long-term incarceration and provide for offender transition to the community.
-- Reverse National Drug Policy -- The ‘war on drugs' has contributed to a bloated prison system with little impact on substance abuse. Current national priorities that emphasize law enforcement over prevention and treatment should be reversed so that drug abuse is primarily addressed as a public health problem.
-- Build Strong Families and Communities -- As the use of imprisonment has increased, a variety of social problems that contribute to crime have gone largely unaddressed. Policymakers should provide support for mental health services, education, job placement, and other services that can strengthen community life and reduce crime."
11. Prison Campaign Poster Design Competition
Submission Deadline: August 30, 2005
This design competition calls for a poster than explains the problems with the current U.S. prison system and why the refusal to contribute to it is an important and effective response. This poster will have high visibility within the realms of architecture, design, and planning as ADPSR distributes it to the growing number of supporters of the prison design boycott. This competition is your opportunity to learn about a critically important issue of social justice facing our nation today, and to make your own contribution towards a better solution. Artists, graphic designers, architects, students, and others are invited to enter.
Three or more top finalists will receive a copy of "The Early Louis Sullivan Building Photographs" from William Stout Books. One or more winning works will be distributed nationally through ADPSR's prison design boycott campaign. It will be seen in architecture/ design / planning offices, schools, and other institutions, and mailed directly to thousands of individuals. All submissions will be exhibited at CCA (California College of the Arts) in San Francisco at a benefit event for the Prison Design Boycott. Click here for more information.
12. AIA San Francisco Panel Discussion on Prison Design
April 27, 2005 | 5:30-7:30pm
Next Wednesday evening, AIA San Francisco is hosting a panel discussion, addressing the question, "Should Architects Design Prisons?" Panelists include ADPSR President Raphael Sperry, architect Frank Greene, and Sheriff Michael Hennessey on the ADPSR nationwide campaign asking architects to stop designing prisons. The session will be moderated by Nicole Sawaya, General Manager of KALW. The program is free and open to the public. Click here for more information.
13. About ADPSR
ADPSR is a national nonprofit, founded in 1983 and dedicated to the involvement of architects, designers, and planners in issues of peace and social justice. Members receive ADPSR's newsletter, which has updates on ADPSR's activities including this campaign, and gain the opportunity to support and participate in ADPSR's efforts to lead architects, designers, and planners in socially responsible practice. To join ADPSR ($50 for individuals, $35 for students), visit http://www.adpsr.org or click here to go directly to the subscription page.
14. Additional Resource Links
In addition to the resources provided by ADPSR at http://www.adpsr.org/prisons/links.htm), we suggest the following resources for more information:
Federal Bureau of Prisons
http://www.bop.gov
The Federal Bureau of Prisons was established in 1930 to provide more progressive and humane care for Federal inmates, to professionalize the prison service, and to ensure consistent and centralized administration of the 11 Federal prisons in operation at the time.
State Departments of Corrections
http://www.corrections.com/links/viewlinks.asp?Cat=30
AIA Academy of Architecture for Justice
http://www.aia.org/caj_default
The Academy of Architecture for Justice (AAJ) promotes and fosters the exchange of information and knowledge between members, professional organizations, and the public for high-quality planning, design, and delivery of justice architecture.
ACLU National Prison Project
http://www.aclu.org/Prisons/
The NPP advocates for criminal justice policy reform and educates the public about the social and fiscal ramifications of our current emphasis on incarceration and the government's deliberate move away from rehabilitation toward debilitating imprisonment.
Real Cost of Prisons Project
http://www.realcostofprisons.org
The Real Cost of Prisons Project brings together prison/justice policy activists with political economists to explore both the immediate and long-term costs of incarceration on the individual, her/his family, community and the nation. The goals of the Real Cost of Prisons Project are to broaden the public's understanding of the economic and social consequences of mass incarceration.
The Sentencing Project
http://www.sentencingproject.org/issues_01.cfm
The Sentencing Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which promotes reduced reliance on incarceration and increased use of more effective and humane alternatives to deal with crime.
National Center on Institutions and Alternatives
http://www.ncianet.org/genpubs.cfm
The mission of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives (NCIA) is to help create a society in which all persons who come into contact with human service or correctional systems are provided an environment of individual care, concern and treatment.
Prison Activist Resource Center
http://prisonactivist.org/
The Prison Activist Resource Center is an all-volunteer collective that provides support for educators, activists, prisoners, and prisoners' families. This work includes building networks for action and producing materials that expose human rights violations while fundamentally challenging the rapid expansion of the prison industrial complex.
Stanford Prison Experiment
http://www.prisonexp.org/
This classic 1971 psychology experiment placed mentally stable college student volunteers in a prison setting, randomly identified some as inmates and some as guards, and then studied the results. The experiment was planned to last two weeks, but had to be cut short after six days because of what the situation was doing to the students who volunteered.
ArchVoices is an independent, nonprofit organization and think tank on architectural education, internship, and licensure.
Comments? We welcome your thoughts by email at editors@archvoices.org.
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