Contact Us
For additional information about this campaign please email us at prisons@adpsr.org
ADPSR National Forum
P.O. Box 9126
Berkeley, CA 94709-0126
510-845-1000
forum@adpsr.org
About This 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.
ADPSR is a national non-profit founded in 1983 dedicated to the involvement of architects, designers, and planners in issues of peace and social justice.
Please be aware that it takes time and resources to research, organize, and publicize this campaign. Please consider supporting this effort, and future ones like it, by becoming a member. 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.
Credits
Campaign Director: Raphael Sperry, www.450architects.com
Web Design: David Lehrer, www.lehrerdesign.com
Flash Design: Carol Greenberg, www.greenberginteractive.com
CGI Scrips: Ron Blaise, www.ecohost.org
Camera Image (on homepage): Nicole Cousino, www.concreteandsunshine.com
Photos of Lancaster County Prison: Kathleen Monroe
Sources
Introductory Slide Show
2,000,000 prisoners in the U.S. - the Sentencing Project www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/1035.pdf
25% of prisoners in the world are in the U.S.- 360 Degress
www.360degrees.org, see "Dynamic Data"
1 in 95 American adults in prison - Bureau of Justice Statistics (Correctional Populations in the United States, 1996), compared with U.S. Census Data
$56 Billion per year operating costs - Bureau of Justice Statistics
Direct Expenditure by Criminal Justice Function, 1982-2001
$2.7 Billion per year in prison construction - Mother Jones Magazine
Over 5,000 prisons - Bureau of Justice Statistics (1,668 Federal and State Prisons reported in 2 Census of State and Federal correctional Facilities, 2000, approximately 3,328 local jails reported in Correctional Populations in the United States, 1996)
The Prison Crisis
Justice Policy Institute: citing Bureau of Census, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and the National Conference of State Legislatures
The Sentencing Project: citing Bureau of Justice Statistics www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/1035.pdf
Prison History
This discussion is drawn mainly from the Timeline section of www.360degrees.org, which presents a wealth of detailed information on prison history.
Design and Control
Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
Human Rights
AIA Code of Ethics E.S. 1.4, under "General Obligations"
California Prison Focus: www.prisons.org/report_card.htm, www.prisons.org/human_rights.htm, www.prisons.org/shu.htm
Hylton, Wil S. "Sick on the Inside." Harpers, August 2003, p. 43-54 Prison Activist Resource Center: www.prisonactivist.org/control-unit/
Racism and Poverty
National Organization of Minority Architects: www.noma.net/news.htm
The Sentencing Project : http://www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/9070smy.pdf, http://www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/1035.pdf, citing Bureau of Justice Statistics;
US Census data: http://factfinder.census.gov/
Lack of Rehabilitation
Lewin, Tamar. "Inmate Education Is Found To Lower Risk of New Arrest." New York Times, November 16, 2001.
Mother Jones magazine: www.motherjones.com/news/special_reports/prisons/violence.html and also: www.motherjones.com/news/special_reports/prisons/left_behind.html
High Costs and Corruption
Constitution of the United States, Amendment XIII: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/constitution_amendments_11-27.htmls
Prison Activist Resource Center: www.prisonactivist.org/factsheets/pic.pdf
USA Today: Court: Federal inmates can't sue private prisons
Prison Towns
Fraser, Joelle. "An American Seduction," p. 83, in Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America's Poor, Tara Herival and Paul Wright, ed. Routledge, 2003.