Designing reform

Cross posted at Political Arguments.

Architects / Designers / Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR) has launched a competition to design a poster for their Prison Design Boycott Campaign.

Why should architects, designers, and planners refuse to work on prisons? Don?t ask us? design a poster to explain it to design professionals yourself! This design competition calls for a poster than explains the problems with the current U.S. prison system and why the refusal to contribute to it is an important and effective response. This poster will have high visibility within the realms of architecture, design, and planning as ADPSR distributes it to the growing number of supporters of the prison design boycott. This competition is your opportunity to learn about a critically important issue of social justice facing our nation today, and to make your own contribution towards a better solution.

I have no firmview on this matter, except a fairly settled conviction that the American prison system is rotten to the core. But I'm not sure that a boycott on designing prisons will solve the problem. If anything, it might lead to even more overcrowding in existing, poorly designed institutions.

It is, however, an interesting political strategy. (Via Design Observer)