Prison break KIRSTY GORDON
#1 DESIGN PROPOSITION
contents
Design Proposition: Prison Break
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1 2 3 4 5
Introduction ...pg 3,4
Million Dollar Blocks ...pg 4,5
Design Proposal ...pg 6,7
Site ...pg 7,8
Karma Rescue ...pg 9,10
Design Proposition: Prison Break
6 7 8 9 10
Stanford Prison Experiment ...pg 10,11
Psychological Effects ...pg 11,12
Big Brother ...pg 13,14
Substance Abuse ...pg 15,16
Punishment or Rehabilitation ...pg 17,18
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Guilty! Design Proposition: Prison Break
Guilt¡y Culpable of or responsible for a specified wrong
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or the majority of society, prison is an irrelevant matter; it is a consequence of breaking the law and the utmost point within the justice system. Therefore, what happens next? Many studies and first-hand accounts show that prison, as it currently stands, does not reflect true justice.
The United States has more people in prison than any other country in the world; it may only make up 5% of the world’s population but accommodates over 25% of the worlds incarcerated. If the U.S. prison population were a city it would be the fourth largest in the USA, following New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. More than 2.2 million people are diminishing away today in USA’s prisons. Seven million are under carceral supervision, and what was once solely associated with the USA is now becoming a vast global epidemic. The proposition would specifically target non-violent offenders who struggle to stay on the right side of the law when released. Situated in an area with such high crime, the state is spending over a million Fig 1
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Design Proposition: Prison Break
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As architects, we can be far better employed providing the space needed for social nurturing, healing, and reintegration instead, the money spent on prison construction steals the resources needed for these central social goals.1
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dollars a year in certain areas to incarcerate their residents. Brooklyn contains several of these ‘million dollar blocks’ and would benefit significantly from such an institute. This design will rethink what a prison can achieve, it will also combat certain design ethics and address a variety of contemporary issues, capturing the paradox that a designer can face. The environment of the prison can directly impact a prisoner’s behavior both mentally and physically. Many ex-convicts feel they have no other future and commit further crime. Therefore, by proposing to develop a new direction within the justice system, where the focus is took off punishment, a new system of higher education incarceration could see the promotion of rehabilitation and consequently be able to produce reformed productive members of society. The concept of incarceration is a mystery to many, particularly as these institutions are closed spaces and have restricted access and limited exposure to the reality that exists beyond the prison walls.
such as going to jail, the daily life of an inmate, treatment, peer pressure, the social judgement and then the pressure of finding their way back into society. In the US it is a topic of high debate on the action of what to do with overpopulated prisons. In general, it is two to four times less expensive to educate an inmate than it is to incarcerate an individual. However, education is seen as a privilege and perhaps a right that is forgone when committing a crime. “We grow up in a society that puts a high premium on education from birth,” Patrick says. “That’s because it’s transformative. It turns individuals around in terms of being a good citizen, a good neighbor, and less likely to commit a crime.”2 So if education has such transformable properties, surely the best place this can exist is within a prison?
Currently there is limited knowledge and information regarding the process of incarceration,
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Design Proposition: Prison Break
in-car-cer-a-tion noun Incarceration The act of incarcerating, or putting in prison or another enclosure.
Fig 3
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Design Proposition: Prison Break
million Doller blocks In many areas, where the concentration of crime is so dense, the state commonly spends in excess of a million dollars a year to incarcerate the residents of these single city blocks.
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risons and jails form part of the outskirts of many cities today and it is fair to say an ‘out of sight out of mind’ mantra follows in suit. However, with the government predominantly investing more in incarceration, this weakens other parts of our civic infrastructure – education, welfare and community belonging. It could be said that the prison system has an indirect impact upon all of us. There are a variety of factors such as tougher sentencing and parole violations, but it is unfavourable that the U.S. spends $64.3 billion every year on incarceration. Recently, a group of researchers by the name of ‘The Spatial Information Design Lab’ were able to access the Justice Mapping Centre data to produce a map of what is known as a ‘million dollar block’ as part of a research and development project. The project looks closely at identifying the flow migration of the city’s population to prison for five of the USA’s cities.
RECIDIVISM Recidivism: a tendency to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behavior; especially: relapse into criminal behaviour. Inevitably, the majority of these prisoners will eventually be released but with rates of recidivism being at an all time high and still growing (within the first half 2015 already) “Research does not support the proposition that simply placing an individual in a job is a silver bullet for reducing criminal behaviors.”3 Although currently many employment programs are being trailed across Brooklyn, there is no response that meets the unpredictable risks and needs of this demographic. Why is this a problem? Employment challenges, health, housing, and a lack of strong social ties are typically among the key reasons that people return to jail or prison.
Arguably more than ever it is the community - the public surrounding these areas that could help demise these figures. It is broadcasted throughout the media, through police making arrests, juries delivering verdicts and not forgetting the victims left with a story awaiting punishment of the guilty. Yet the majority will do its best to avoid all thought of prison, as it is a consequence of violating a social norm and depicts an ugly side of human nature. The sole purpose of the criminal justice system is to protect the public and rightly so. However, if the focus only exists upon crime and punishment alone, it is questionable whether they are solving the real problem at all. In summary, there will be no true change until there is a break in the cycle and a reinvention within the current justice system as it currently stands.
Fig 4
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Design Proposition: Prison Break
design proposal Pris¡on A building (or vessel) in which people are legally held as a punishment for crimes they have committed or while awaiting trials.
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Design Proposition: Prison Break
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he driving force behind the project is to change the way that the criminal justice system works, and in turn, how it is perceived. This design will implement a new phase; a bridge between prison and release and move away from an exinmate like stigma into a reformed individual. Targeting primarily nonviolent crime offenders, the institute would be ran as a pilot scheme for one year and see the population of up to 10 convicts nearing one-year left of sentencing. Although the emphasis is still upon providing a secure building, Change (noun) as the intention The act or instance of making or is still very much becoming different. correctional, barriers will be broken down to introduce a better way of education, social interaction and in turn, quality The location itself makes use of a of life. The institute is to provide an derelict building and wasteland outlet for all and change the idea and and much like its occupants, will misconceptions of not only prisoners transform it for the better. The themselves but also the community community around it suffers from and public, in which they are later such high crime and incarceration released into. This design aims to that even in the last 4 weeks alone change the way we think of prisons there has been a 31% increase. and the view society generally has This new approach to justice will upon people who are convicted, stand as controversial but it is then they are perhaps more about looking at the bigger picture susceptible to a better integration and offering a second chance that back into the community and stand will transform the current climate. a better chance to prosper in life.
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Design Proposition: Prison Break
Fig 8
379 harman street
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Design Proposition: Prison Break
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he site at 379 Harman Street is currently a vacant 2 floor industrial building, which has recently been advertised for sale with 4 other adjoining lots and has a combined frontage of 70104mm along Harman Street.
this project, allow heights for large-scale developments.
The building itself is zoned within an R6 district, which means its surrounding areas are widely mapped in built-up, medium-density buildings. The character of R6 districts can range from neighbourhoods with a diverse mix of building types and importantly for
It offers the perfect opportunity to add something into the surrounding community that will enhance lives for the better. Not only does it reform something which may have been deemed ‘no good’, similarly like those who which it will inhabit, it provides a use and offers something for a range of consumers. Inevitably, the main consumer will not only be that of the inmate serving the remainder of their sentencing, but also the people who work there,
businesses working in the vicinity, families of those who are incarcerated and ultimately the community in which these reformed individuals will later become a part of.
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Design Proposition: Prison Break
text: r...
California State Prison paws4life “I have been locked up for over twenty two years... The biggest reason why I want to help care for, feed, train and love the dogs; I want to be a part of giving someone something that will always love them and be there for them always. A person can give as much money the he or she has to charity or person, but no amount of money can love a person or go fetch a child’s favorite toy or teddy bear. Please allow me to give a person more than words or money.”4 Fig 13
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Design Proposition: Prison Break
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who rescued who?
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n 2014, officials from the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation (CDCR) chose to adapt a new formality into their rehabilitation regime and approached Karma Rescue with a proposition, could they develop a program that would see inmates paired with rescued shelter dogs? More than 100,000 prisoners are currently housed in California’s maximum security correctional facilities where the majority will serve life long sentences, similarly, many hundreds of thousands of dogs are held in pounds across the state, many of which will be euthanised. The programme benefits both dogs and inmates, once the dog has social interaction, its chance for successful adoption increases and so does the ability to rescue another animal in its place. The inmate not only benefits from companionship and the presence of the dog, but also begins to develop more interpersonal skills and starts to display compassion by having a level of care and responsibility for the dog itself. Karma Rescue took five shelter dogs to the prison. Men who had not seen an animal in decades were openly emotional at the sight and just from having the ability to pet the dogs. Prisons eligible to participate in the program were part of the prison’s Progressive Programming Facility, where they voluntarily agree to sustain a violence free environment. Inmates applied for the time slots by sitting interviews and writing essays. On the final afternoon, a graduation ceremony was held and a strong sense of compassion was said to have ran throughout the prison yard, ‘compassion’ is not often a word associated with prison, least of all one of maximum security, but a change in the norm reformed the participants. The 12-week program has proven so successful that it will now become a recurring exercise.
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stanfo Design Proposition: Prison Break
Prison Experiment
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he experiment was set out to investigate how people would psychologically adapt to specified roles over a 2 week period, students were divided into guards and prisoners in order to study the impacts of power and control. The study began replicating conduct of a real life prison. The identified prisoner was arrested, stripped, cleaned and then forced into a prison uniform complete with a chain around their ankle. Their identity from this point onwards was a number in which they would be referred to by and that only. This was a tool used to dehumanise them. The guards of the makeshift prison were left to their own devices, with only one instruction - to govern on their own. They made up rules between themselves, but over the following days this slowly began to deteriorate. Guards would try harder to assert their dominance but encounters started to progress onto physical and psychological levels.
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The environment became desensitised to the experimental approach, psychologists in charge yielded their roles as prison directors and prisoners were no longer free to leave, despite the fact it was voluntary and they had the right to leave whenever they wanted. Even lawyers called in by the parents of the prisoners treat the situation as if it were real. After night time video footage of the guards showing truly abusive behaviour towards the prisoner for no unprovoked reason came to light, when researchers were no longer around, the experiment had gone too far and was abruptly called to an end just 6 days after the beginning.
“The “prison” environment was an important factor in creating guards’ brutal behavior. Many of the students could not believe what they became in that environment, whether it was brutality or dependency. A guard said, “Acting authoritatively can be fun. Power can be a great pleasure.”5
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Design Proposition: Prison Break
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Design Proposition: Prison Break
hallucinations
paranoia
1/3 hear voices
Over 50% will experience overt aranoia
Psychological impact of space The loss of one’s freedom, loss of location, loss of power is enough punishment to the mind. Rehabilitation can be soothing to the mind for long term solutions.
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fter a while a site, building and space can loose its impact and vitality. Therefore we often seek change in order to relinquish our own experiences, but what about those who are unable to change locations? Prisoners only see one side of a space. Motion and change are essential to our experience of time and time is something many have in these scenarios, yet there still remains an absence. Time impacts our psyche and the way in which we connect an experience to a series of thoughts and feelings linked
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to change. We experience past, present and future, all of which are different time scales and are all affected by change. Being in a situation of non-self-control between past and future, we are in temporary dislocation, which can be distressing and naturally cause a feeling of lost identity. Design has an opportunity to flourish in a space such as a prison. It has the power to shape actions and thoughts and the ability to express ideas and values. Prison design is built for the purpose of imprisonment, but this only serves a fraction of the criteria.
Design Proposition: Prison Break
Fig 19
panic attacks
suicide
More than 50% of prisoners will encounter panic attacks
50% of all inmates think about suicide
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Design Proposition: Prison Break
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ig brother as we know it today is a reality game show where a group of people deemed as ‘housemates’ or ‘houseguests’ live together within an isolated environment and are continuously monitored by in house cameras and audio microphones. Designed by John de Mol the concept of the reality show takes upon the role of a prison style environment and uses influence from ‘1984’, a book by George Orwell which depicts a Big Brother premises as a dictator who monitors his society. “Power is not a means; it is an end.”6
Tatureri oressendunt: reribus elit laborporitat unt laut omnistendant quatesed ut laborerovid es inctusam a verspienis eturem qui ducimenis dictio te veriati ostrunt ulpa tio runtotat il egnati cus.
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Design Proposition: Prison Break
Fig 20
big brother is wathcing you 19
Design Proposition: Prison Break
I ended up home, after nearly dying a few times... Ad¡dic¡tion The fact or condition of being addicted to a particular substance, thing, or activity.
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Fig 22
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Design Proposition: Prison Break
UKNA Alcoholic and narcotic anonymous programmes run globally throughout the world inside and outside of prison. The connections between substance abuse and crime is well known and in the USA alone over 70% of those incarcerated have used substances prior to their arrest. Visiting a local UKNA group demonstrated that the same problems still exist in the UK, just on a much smaller scale. The difference in these groups is that the people attending are actively seeking help, but surprisingly, many spoke of how it was a similarly ran programme inside of prison which has led to their success and now find themselves open to talking about it today.
the change Participant A stood up and introduced herself, spoke of her revelations and told a story of how she had lived her life in and out of prison form the age of 19. Isolated by her family, she fled moving up and down the country with people she barely knew and used drugs to forget the physical, emotional and mental abuse that was part of her everyday life. She attended a few N.A. meetings and got a sponsor, but still refused to give up the drugs. “I ended up home, after nearly dying a few times.” she said. Ready for a much-needed change in her life, she checked into a 21day rehab program and has been ‘clean’ for 3 years. She is no longer involved in any form of crime and even volunteers within local services to share her experience.
Fig 23
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Design Proposition: Prison Break
punishment or Rehab There are several things that must be considered when comparing the routes between punishment and rehabilitation. First and foremost is regaining a sense of freedom. Given people inside prison have lost their freedom in a physical sense but also their mindset and the power of selfdetermination. Furthermore, it recognises the limited power of hard treatment, otherwise, it abandons communication and expects no response from offenders.8 Excessive cruelty may “turn men into puppets who are creatures of their manipulators”.9 Punishment cannot be treat as an automatic response to reform an individual, as
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each person will respond differently. There is very little knowledge or understanding of an offender’s personal life and therefore a limited knowledge on how best to motivate and enable them to reconnect. It may produce personality changes that disappear when hard treatment ceases.10 Abuse, poverty and exposure to substances are all things no child should have to encounter, yet numerous pieces of research from over the last 25 years show it is the children of today’s climate that face these risk factors more than ever, and more often than not, these factors contribute to the involvement of criminal behaviour. Rehabilitation can
motivate an individual and provide an outlet for positive reinforcement instead of only acknowledging the bad behaviour. Commonly, it is the fear factor that is established with a punishment, which scares an individual to relive an
Design Proposition: Prison Break
“Comprehensive rehabilitative programes focus on such areas and allow inmates to see the consequences of their actions more clearly, thereby lessening the likelihood of reconviction for another offense.�7
Fig 23 Fig 24
experience, however, this rarely works and is often seen to have a detrimental effect upon them re-entering the real world. The public are often sceptical towards rehabilitative means for incarceration. It is a
common misconception that rehabilitation will cost more. However, contrary to belief, rehabilitation schemes tend to be more cost effective as it reduces recidivism rates, saves taxpayer’s money and provides a safer environment
to live in. Punishment itself undoubtedly has an effect upon prisoners through the loss of freedom, identity and spatial limitations, but without treatment, prison serves primarily as a breeding ground of further crime and conviction.
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Design Proposition: Prison Break
references Soruces: The need to know
Quotation 01|ADPSR (2004), Lack of Rehabilitation 02| Patrick F. (2013), Pathways Director, Why Prisoner Education is Key to Reducing Crime 03| Schaeffer S (2014), Chief Executive Officer, It Takes More Than A Job to Reduce Recidivism 04|Oliver (2008), Who Rescued Whom? 05| Zimbardo (1973), Stanford Prison Experiment 06| Orwell G, (1937), 1949 07| The Vital Role of Rehabilitation in America’s Justice System 08| Jefferys S Derek (2013), Spirituality in Dark Places, New York: Palgrave Macmilan. Pg 97 09| Hamilton Moberly W (1968), The Ethics of Punishment. Pg 127 10| Jefferys S Derek (2013), Spirituality in Dark Places, New York: Palgrave Macmilan. Pg 27
Books 01| Jefferys, S. Derek. (2013) Spirituality in Dark Places. New York. Palgrave Macmilan. 27-97 02| Maxfield, M and Babbie E. (2015) Basics of Research Methods for Criminal Justice and Criminology. 4th edition. CENGAGE 03| Orwell, G. (1949) 1984. Penguin Modern Classics 04 |Power, S. (2009) Philosophical Introduction to the Experience of Time. Neuro Quantology. 16-29
Websites 01| SIDL. 2015. Million Dollar Blocks. [ONLINE] Available at: http://spatialinformationdesignlab.org/projects/million-dollar-blocks [Accessed 10/10/2015]
02|Dr. Patricia Fitzgerald . 2014. Who Rescued Whom? Shelter Dogs and Prison Inmates Give Each Other a New ‘Leash’ on Life. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-patricia-fitzgerald/who-rescued-who-shelter-dogs-and-prison-inmates-give-each-other-a-new-leash-on-life_b_5760042.html. [Accessed 07 October 15]. 03|Crime Museum . 2014. Stanford Prison Experiment. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/ stanford-prison-experiment. [Accessed 10 October 15]. 04|Saul McLeod. 2008. Zimbardo - Stanford Prison Experiment. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.simplypsychology.org/ zimbardo.html. [Accessed 10 October 15].
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Design Proposition: Prison Break
05|Karma Rescue. 2008. Paws for Life. [ONLINE] Available at: http://karmarescue.org/paws-for-life/. [Accessed 06 October 15] 06|David Garland. 1991. Socialogical Perspectives of Punishment. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.umass.edu/legal/Benavides/Fall2005/397G/Readings%20Legal%20397%20G/8%20David%20Garland.pdf. [Accessed 06 October 15]. 07|Etienne Benson. 2003. Socialogical Rehabilitate or punish?. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug03/ rehab.aspx. [Accessed 17 October 15]. 08|Sean Enda Power. 2009. A Philosophical Introduction to the. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.neuroquantology.com/ index.php/journal/article/viewFile/204/204. [Accessed 20 October 15]. 09|Wikipedia. 2015. Big Brother (franchise). [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brother_(franchise). [Accessed 20 October 15]. 10|Mindgap. 2008. Mind the Gap . [ONLINE] Available at: http://blog.mindgap.in/2008_10_01_archive.html. [Accessed 27 October]. 11|CEOworks. 2014. It Takes More than Just a Job to Reduce Recidivism. [ONLINE] Available at: http://ceoworks.org/ takes-just-job-reduce-recidivism/. [Accessed 10 October 15].
images credits 01|Front cover: http://previews.123rf.com/images/nito500/nito5001212/nito500121200015/16685660-closeup-of-thehands-of-a-man-with-handcuffs-on-a-white-background-Stock-Photo.jpg and Kirsty Gordon
02|http://tuvan.doisongphapluat.com/lib/tinymce/plugins/imagemanager/files/hinhphattu.jpg 03|http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/prison.JPG 04|http://spatialinformationdesignlab.org 05| h t t p s : // w w w. g o o g l e . c o . u k /m a p s /p l a c e / E S P + M e t a l + C ra f t s , + I n c . /@ 4 0 . 7 0 1 6 9 7 ,- 7 3 . 9 1 9 6 2 4 7 , 1 7 z / data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89c25c1eb1a0f05f:0x71df82ab4285ed8d 06|https://cadmapper.com/ and Kirsty Gordon 07| h t t p s : // w w w. g o o g l e . c o . u k /m a p s /p l a c e / E S P + M e t a l + C ra f t s , + I n c . /@ 4 0 . 7 0 1 6 9 7 ,- 7 3 . 9 1 9 6 2 4 7 , 1 7 z / data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89c25c1eb1a0f05f:0x71df82ab4285ed8d 08|https://www.flickr.com/photos/mixnyc/albums/72157645938210258 09|https://www.flickr.com/photos/mixnyc/albums/72157645938210258 10|https://www.flickr.com/photos/mixnyc/albums/72157645938210258 11|http://karmarescue.org 12|http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-patricia-fitzgerald/who-rescued-who-shelter-dogs-and-prison-inmates-give-eachother-a-new-leash-on-life_b_5760042.html.
13|http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-patricia-fitzgerald/who-rescued-who-shelter-dogs-and-prison-inmates-give-eachother-a-new-leash-on-life_b_5760042.html.
14|https://elrobotpescador.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/stanford-county-prison.jpg
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Design Proposition: Prison Break
15|http://36.media.tumblr.com/07c2ead388d3a89a02a3427cd2ec1ad5/tumblr_n3rqcgCsDO1ty592ao1_400.jpg 16|http://ww1.hdnux.com/photos/10/42/32/2238124/5/628x471.jpg 17|http://f.tqn.com/y/psychology/1/S/a/7/inkblot.png 18|http://www.stencilrevolution.com/photopost/2012/11/big-brother-is-watcing-stencil.jpg 19|http://stylelikeu.com/upload/photos/orig_tn_photo-53612-384237.jpg 20|http://media.recovery.org/wp-content/uploads/drug-abuse.jpg 21|http://media.recovery.org/wp-content/uploads/drug-abuse.jpg 22|http://f.tqn.com/y/psychology/1/S/a/7/inkblot.png 23|http://www.lvsamaritan.org/images/hands-holding-house-image.jpg
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Design Proposition: Prison Break
Bibliography The Inbetween: Background Reading
books 01| Travis, J. (2005) But They All Come Back: Facing The Challenges Of Prisoner Reentry. Urban Inst Pr
Websites 01|Gianluca cuestas, Rocco Parascandola, Tina Moore. 2015. NYPD Reveals Increase in Homicides. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/cops-seek-sweatsuit-clad-man-shot-bystander-brooklyn-article-1.2242439 [Accessed 05/10/2015] 02|DNAinfo. 2011. Figures Tell a Tale of Two Brooklyns. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/ crime-safety-report/brooklyn. [Accessed 13 October 15]. 03|Murray Weiss and Nigel Chiwaya. 2015. INTERACTIVE MAP: Rise in Serious Crime Seen in Most NYPD Precincts. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20150603/williamsburg/interactive-map-rise-serious-crime-seen-mostnypd-precincts. [Accessed 11 October 15].
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