A hunger strike in California state prisons calls for an end to indefinite solitary confinement in Security Housing Units, known as SHUs. Raphael Sperry has challenged fellow architects to ban the design of SHUs. Beverly Prior responds, reflecting on a career designing for incarceration. Joe Day sees societal values mirrored in the growth of both American prisons and museums. — kcrw.com
Previously: Building A Better Prison
3 Comments
No moral architect should be designing SHU's. It is the equivalent of designing torture chambers with racks and iron maidens.
Agreed. Solitary confinement is barbaric.
Agreed, but I can see how its a tough call because if architects don't do it...some other joe schmoe will do it for the money, and there's big money in the prison busine$$. At least if an architect does it, some thought will go into it, theoretically.
I know going to prison is not meant to be a picnic, but they should design more vocational training buildings, high school diploma classrooms, green spaces, family visiting areas, so that when they come back to the real world they aren't even more screwed up than when they went in and can actually be productive members of society. When you lock someone in a cage like an animal, they will act like an animal.
$.02
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