THE ARCHITECTURE OF “JUSTICE”
MEANINGFUL CRIMINAL
JUSTICE REFORM

ÀMBAR MARGARIDA, GUEST BLOGGER • JANUARY 2020

In October 2019, the New York City Council voted to shut down the Rikers Island Jail complex by 2026 and replace it with four new smaller jails in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan for an estimated cost of 9 billion dollars. Many argue that these new jails can help solve the culture of violence at Rikers (by both inmates and guards) by closing it and building new progressive spaces for “corrections” closer to courthouses and detainees’ communities.

Rikers Island Jail, NYC

Most of the detainees at Rikers, like most jails, are pre-trial defendants either held on bail or remanded in custody. The rest of the population have been convicted and are serving short sentences, typically for non-violent crimes.

Jails are works of architecture, but I don’t think the solution to decades of mass incarceration of black, latino, and underprivileged citizens is an infrastructure problem. I disagree with the notion that imprisonment and punishment are the only way to keep our citizens safe. In fact, the isolation, segregation, and neglect of the individuals that are warehoused in these cages leads to the detriment of the very social fabric we elect our politicians to strengthen.

Should we abolish jails all together? Should they exist but be designed and operated differently?

There are arguments on both sides of this complex issue, but we can not deny the fact that decades of a national “war on drugs,” three-strike laws, mandatory minimum sentencing, and crime bills and policies (such as stop and frisk in NYC) have contributed to the fact that the United States, with 5% of the world’s population, holds 25% of the world’s incarcerated.

NYC is invested in reducing its jail population by more than half and designing a better criminal justice system, with the architecture to support it.

In September 2019, NYC officials visited some of Europe’s most progressive prisons on a fact-finding mission. One visit was to Halden Prison, a maximum-security facility in Halden, Norway, where the focus is on rehabilitation — its design simulates life outside of incarceration. It is Norway's second-largest prison with a capacity of 250 inmates on a site of 75 acres. By comparison, NYC’s proposal aims to reduce the city’s jail population from its current number of roughly 7,000 detainees to 3,300. I should note that a jail is a place for those awaiting trial or held for minor crimes, whereas a prison is a place for those convicted of serious crimes. NYC is planning new smaller jails, not prisons.

Halden Prison, Norway

Halden Prison was designed by the Danish group Erik Møller Architects and the Norwegian HLM Arkitektur AS. Its design simulates life in a village so that the transition back into freedom is easier. All aspects of the prison are designed with environmental psychology principals and encourage rehabilitation, health, and social well-being. 50% of the guards are female and most guards are unarmed. The Wikipedia page for the prison states that there is an activities house, and from 8 AM to 8 PM, there is access to jogging trails and a football field. In addition, wood working, cooking, and music classes are offered. There is also a library with books, magazines, CDs, and DVDs, a gym with a rock-climbing wall, and a chapel. Halden understands that keeping inmates busy and providing a sense of normalcy and choice reduces violence and depression. Unlike the USA, in Norway there are no life sentences. The focus is on rehabilitating a citizen so that upon release they can make a smooth transition into society.

Justice Hubs, NYC

As part of New York City’s effort to decentralize jails and close Rikers, the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform, the Van Alen Institute, and architecture and urban design firm NADAAA developed a design report for forward thinking jail design, coining the term “justice hubs.” “Justice hubs are facilities that create healthy, normative environments and support rehabilitation for incarcerated or detained individuals, while simultaneously providing neighborhoods with new public amenities.”

NADAAA’s report states that “to make jails more rehabilitative, healthy, and respectful, attention to the design of interior spaces must focus on producing positive behavioral effects, easing tension for inmates and staff, providing dedicated spaces for diversity of experiences and constructive programming, and creating domestic environments more common in everyday life with access to light, air and views.” This is a step in the right direction.

Architect Deanna Van Buren

I admire Architect Deanna Van Buren’s transformation of what the “architecture of justice” looks like. She engages the incarcerated and communities to work on new prototypes, such as peacemaking centers, mobile classrooms, and housing for foster-age youth. Together they create and support the success and expansion of restorative justice, education, and workforce development programs.

Conclusion

This is a complex, multifaceted problem, and I agree with Michel Alexander, a lawyer, civil rights advocate, and the author of The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness when she says that “Meaningful criminal justice reform requires taking a very holistic view and insuring that people who are released from prison have meaningful opportunities for education and access to health care and drug treatment and mental health treatment and support, and there is a strong commitment to taking the profit motive out of incarceration entirely.”

The Architecture of “Justice”