What is one of the primary sources for information for people today? The internet. I would argue that the internet is the principal source for new knowledge for people in our current society. As we bustle about our daily lives, one comes across many situations where the easiest solution to an unknown is to 'google' it. However, what does this say about the information that is dissimulated from person to person? It is important to note that information technology is the not primary topic of this post. It is to understand that information surrounding people, ideas, and places can be spread rapidly.
So when some is unfamiliar or has limited knowledge of a topic, jumping on the internet is the most convenient and fastest approach to begin gathering information. I consider myself a novice to social justice architecture and detention facilities as most of my design work includes community development, residential, and commercial structures. I have an interest in social justice design and community architecture education. Thus, I googled "prison architecture" and "prison design" to see what I could uncover.
The information revealed in this simple, online search revealed much more than I initially anticipated. The top results include "The Architecture of Incarceration" from ArchDaily, "Prison Design faces Judgement" from latimes.com, "Prison Design and Control" from adpsr, and numerous articles regarding the historical Panoption design. Results varied in opinion, however, it seems that they boil down to a similar moral: designers must not design prisons and similar detention facilities to simply detain prisoners. Facilities need to acknowledge that these people will return to the 'default world' and should be given the proper resources and rehabilitation.
This seems like a basic conclusion, yet there are examples of projects that continue to get built around the idea that the people who live in these residences, (and yes, they are homes for people for a period of their life), need to be solely punished for their crime. I feel that there are lessons to be learned from other building types such as schools, and college residence halls. These places are about acknowledging where each student is in their life and works to improve and overcome each students current issues; whether that be school, mental disorders, relationships, anger, etc.
This leads me to ask: What are other lessons are there that we can learn from these building types that focus on education, rather than negative reinforcements of behavior?
For more information, check out:
http://www.adpsr.org/home/prison_design_and_control
http://www.archdaily.com/406790/the-architecture-of-incarceration-can-design-affect-the-prison-system/