Architecture News Daily reports on a “radical approach to prison design” from Glen Santayana, a student at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, who designed PriSchool, a prison that includes a school of criminology. PriSchool is designed for non-violent offenders who struggle to stay on the right side of the law when released. Located in a Brooklyn neighborhood surrounded by “million dollar blocks” with such high crime that the state is spending a million dollars a year to incarcerate their residents, the prison/school hybrid rethinks what a prison can achieve, imagining it as a place where prisoners and students can learn from each other, and where criminals can be rehabilitated.
Prison design issues have been pursued by Raphael Sperry, founder of Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility, who wants the American Institute of Architects to forbid members from designing execution chambers or solitary confinement units. Deanna VanBuren of FOURM Design Studio, has championed “restorative justice,” which emphasizes rehabilitation and reconciliation in order to prevent people from re-offending.