Skip to Main Content

Police, judicial & correctional buildings: General resources

Recommended resources on criminal justice facilities, past and present, and related topics, providing location info for print resources and links for digital resources.

Recommended books

Recommended image resources

Search "court house" and "police buildings" in Detail Inspiration

Other resources

Correctional News (Industry journal with the subtitle “Design + Construction + Operations”)

The future of prison: Frank Gehry and Gehry Partners Advanced Design Studio,” SCI-Arc Channel, published October 4, 2017 (via YouTube)

The Marshall Project (curated links to criminal justice reporting published on the web)

The Real Cost of Prisons Project (provides links to organizations and information)

Recommended for all architectural research

Police, judicial & correctional facilities A to Z

Brawn, Graham, “The changing face of justice: the architecture of the Australian courthouse,” Architecture Australia, September/October 2009, p.39-42

Breyer, Stephen, et al, “Designed for an open society: Supreme Court justice Stephen G. Breyer speaks about how great public architecture helps shape and reflect our democratic values,” Metropolis, November 2012, p.50-53, 74-75

Butler, Richard J., “’The radicals in these Reform times’: politics, grand juries, and Ireland’s unbuilt assize courthouses, 1800-50,” Architectural History, 2015, Vol.58, p.109-139 (PDF via Jstor)

California Courts public information website

Carrasco, Matthew C., Federal courthouse construction, Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 2011 (via Ebook Central)

Center for Design Excellence and the Arts, Vision + Voice: changing the course of federal architecture, U.S. General Services Administration, NA4471 .V575 2004

"Courthouse Violence: Protecting the Judicial Workplace," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2001 (Theme issue)

Flanders, Steven (editor), Celebrating the courthouse: a guide for architects, their clients, and the public, W. W. Norton, NA4471 .C45 2006

Griebel, Michael & Todd S. Phillips, "Architectural Design for Security in Courthouse Facilities," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, July 2001, p.118-131 (PDF via Jstor)

Hockenberry, John, “The fear factor: designing in a post-9/11 world,” Metropolis, May 2006, p.78, 80, 82, 84-85

McNamara, Martha J., From tavern to courthouse: architecture & ritual in American law, 1658-1860, Johns Hopkins University Press, NA4472.M3 M39 2004

Pati, Debajyoti, et al, "Occupants' Perceptions of Openness in Federal Courthouses," Journal of Architectural & Planning Research, Autumn 2010, p.257-269

Resnik, Judith & Dennis E. Curtis, "Representing Justice: From Renaissance Iconography to Twenty-First-Century Courthouses," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, June 2007, p.139-183 (PDF via Jstor)

Taylor, Katherine Fischer, “Geometries of power: royal, revolutionary, and postrevolutionary French courtrooms,” JSAH, December 2013, p.434-474 (PDF via Jstor)

Waldron, Granville Arthur, "Courthouses of Los Angeles County," The Historical Society of Southern California Quarterly, December 1959, p.345-374 (PDF via Jstor)

 

  • The U.S. General Services Administration, Public Building Service, publishes books with designs and plans for individual courthouses and federal buildings. All call numbers begin with NA4473...

Anderson, Sean & Jennifer Ferng, “The detention-industrial complex in Australia,” JSAH, December 2014, p.469-474 (PDF via Jstor)

Detention Centers,” Human Rights Watch (via www.hrw.org)

Dow, Mark, American Gulag: inside U.S. immigration prisons, University of California Press, 2004 (via Ebook Central)

Grant, Elizabeth, “The architecture of detention: why design matters,” Architecture Australia, September / October 2016, p.49-50

Hall, Alexandra, Border watch: cultures of immigration, detention and control, Pluto Press, 2012 (via Ebook Central)

Inside look at Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas,” CBS News, June 17, 2018 (via YouTube)

Miessen, Markus, “The statu(t)e of liberty: spatial location as a blueprint of evil,” Volume, 2006, #6, p.40-[49]

Rajaram, Prem Kumar & Carl Grundy-Warr, Borderscapes, University of Minnesota Press, 2007 (via Ebook Central)   

 

Redfield, Peter, Space in the tropics: from convicts to rockets in French Guiana, University of California Press, 2000 (via Ebook Central)

Shapovalov, Veronica, Remembering the darkness: women in Soviet prisons, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2001 (via Ebook Central) 

The State Archives of New South Wales, Convict records

The UK National Archives, Criminal transportation to Australia

Battles, Kathleen, Calling all cars: radio dragnets and the technology of policing, University of Minnesota Press, 2010 (via Ebook Central)

Gehring, Andrea Cohen, “Community policing: police stations are undergoing major changes,” Urban land, October 2006, p.114-116

Los Angeles Police Department

Newman, Morris, “The new cop on the block: police stations that embrace public life,” L.A. architect, July-August 2004, p.[24]-29

Officer.com (Popular professional site with extensive links)

"Police Headquarters, Los Angeles," Progressive Architecture, March 1956, p.108-115, 145

Sozer, M. Alper, Crime and community policing, LFB Scholarly Publishing, 2009 (via Ebook Central)

Zimring, Franklin E., The city that became safe: New York's lessons for urban crime and its control, Oxford University Press, HV7433. N49 Z56 2012

 

Davis, Jon, “Jail time: old facilities are being repurposed into housing and other unexpected uses,” Planning, November 2014, p.19-22

McMillen, Michael, “Adapting jails and prisons,” Correctional News, September 12, 2012 

Olalquiaga, Celeste & Lisa Blackmore, Downward spiral: El Heliocoide's decent from mall to prison, Terreform, NA935.6 D69 2018

Preuss, Simone, “Ten incredible repurposed prisons,” Recycle Nation, October 20, 2010 

Rawn, Evan, “From prisons to parks: how the US can capitalize on its declining prison populations,” ArchDaily, April 24, 2015 

Researchers looking into correctional buildings will quickly discover that sociological and political literature is abundant, but architectural literature is rare. Obviously, operators of currently-functioning facilities don't like detailed plans of their facilities disseminated widely, but there are some exceptions:  

Day, Joe, Corrections and collections: architectures for art and crime, Routledge, NA6696.U6 D39 2013

May, Kyle (editor), Prisons, Clog, HV8829.P75 2014

Paez i Blanch, Roger, Critical prison design: Mas d’Enric penitentiary, Actar, HV8829.S7 P34 2014

Phillips, Todd S., Building type basics for justice facilities, John Wiley, HV8827 .P55 2003

Arrigo, Bruce A. & Dragan Milovanovic, Revolution in penology: rethinking the society of captives, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009 (via Ebook Central)

Bentham, Jeremy, Panopticon Writings, Verso, HV8805.B5 1995

Evans, Robin, The fabrication of virtue: English prison architecture, 1750-1840, Cambridge University Press, HV8829.G82 E533 2010

Foucault, Michel, Discipline and punish: the birth of the prison, Vintage Books, HV8666 .F6813 1979

Johnston, Norman Bruce, Forms of Constraint: a History of Prison Architecture, University of Illinois Press, HV8805 .J669 2000

Markus, Thomas A., "The Pattern of the Law," Architectural Review, October 1954, p.251-256

Markus, Thomas A., "Prison,” in Oxford Art Online, 2003

Neal, Charles, "Were early American prisons similar to today's?JSTOR Daily, January 19, 2022

Pevsner, A History of Building Types, NA4170.P48 1997 (Chapter 10, "Prisons")

Ruddell, Rick, America behind bars: trends in imprisonment, 1950 to 2000, LFB Scholarly Publishing, 2004 (via Ebook Central)

Semple, Janet, Bentham's Prison: a study of the panopticon penitentiary, Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press, HV881.S46 1993

Tomlinson, Heather, "Design and Reform: the Separate System in the 19th Century English Prison," in Buildings and Society, edited by Anthony D. King, Routledge & Kegan Paul, NA2543.S6

Wilson, David, Pain and retribution: a short history of British prisons 1066 to the present, Reaktion Books, Limited, 2014 (via Ebook Central)

“Correctional architecture:  the symptoms of neglect, the signs of hope,” Architectural record, August 1971, p.[109]-124

"Correctional Facilities," Architectural Record, June 1978 (Theme issue)

Moyer, Fred D., “In answer to questions on correctional architecture,” Architecture, June 1972, p.46-48

“New prisons reflect new reforms and new attitudes,” Architectural record, February 1975, p.99-[108]

“Pushing prisons aside,” Architectural Forum, March 1973, p.[28]-51

"Correctional Facilities," Progressive Architecture, August 1989

"Jails and Prisons," Architectural Record, March 1983 (Building type study)

"Detention facilities: locking them up," Architectural Record, December 1998 (Building type study)

Viladas, Pilar, "Inside the Garden Wall," Progressive Architecture, August 1987, p.86-87

Vonier, Thomas, "Slammers: Jails and Prisons," Progressive Architecture, March 1984, p.93-99

"Correctional facilities: prison explosion," Architectural Record, September 1990 (Building types study)

"Correctional facilities,” Progressive Architecture, February 1993 (Theme issue)

"Corrections architecture evolves," Architectural Record, May 1993 (Building types study)

Day, Joe, "Carceral California,” in From the center: design process at SCI-Arc, edited by Margaret Reeve & Michael Rotondi, Monacelli Press, NA2750.F76 1997

"Detention Facilities," Architectural Record, December 1998 (Theme issue)

"Recreation Centers/Prison Facilities," Progressive Architecture, October 1994 (Theme issue)

Schlosser, Eric, "The Prison-Industrial Complex," The Atlantic Monthly, December 1998 (via theatlantic.com)

Spens, Iona, The architecture of Incarceration, Academy Editions, HV8805.A73 1994

Wagner, Michael, "Prison Sound," Interiors, March 1993, p.24 (On acoustics)

Arrigo, Bruce A. & Dragan Milovanovic, Revolution in penology: rethinking the society of captives, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009 (via Ebook Central)

Carceral, K. C. & Thomas J. Bernard, Prison, Inc: a convict exposes life inside a private prison, New York University Press, 2006 (via Ebook Central)

Dickinson, Elizabeth Evitts, “The future of incarceration,” Architect, June 2008, p.66-71

May, Kyle (editor in chief), Prisons, Clog, HV8829.P75 2014

Phillips, Todd S., Building type basics for justice facilities, John Wiley, HV8827 .P55 2003

[“Prison design”] Architectural Review, June 2018 (Theme issue)

Slessor, Catherine, “Penal progress: model prison project,” Architectural Review, October 2003, p.78-81

Stern, Vivien, “Bricks of shame? Some thoughts on prison design,” AA Files, 2011, #62, p.108-111

Stuth, Tricia & Ted Shelton, “Point-counterpoint: a conversation with Haviland,” JAE, May 2006 (on installation at Eastern State Penitentiary) (PDF via Jstor)

Worthington, Andy, The Guantánamo files, Pluto, 2007 (via Ebook Central)

Carpenter, Mary, Reformatory Schools for the Children of the Perishing and Dangerous Classes, 1861 (via Archive.org)

"Reforming the Reformatory," Architecture, February 1993 (Theme issue)

United States Children's Bureau, Tentative Standards for Training Schools, 1954

Bender, John B., Imagining the penitentiary, University of Chicago Press, PS858.P7B4 1987

Hardy, Phil, The BFI companion to crime, PN1995.9.D4B23 1997

Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture

Piranesi, Giovanni Battista, The prisons, Dover Publications, NE2052.5.P5A4

Prison Movies (Extensive fan site)

Rugoff, Ralph, Scene of the crime, MIT Press, N6530.C2R84 1997

Wilson, David & Sean O’Sullivan, Images of incarceration: representations of prison in film and television drama, Waterside Press, 2004 (via Ebook Central)

Andrew, Christopher & Vasili Mitrokhin, The Sword and the shield: the Mitrokhin archive and the secret history of the KGB, Basic Books, 2000

BstU Online (Archive of former East German state police)

Gieseke, Jens, The history of the Stasi: East Germany’s secret police, 1945-1990, Berghahn Books, 2014 (via Ebook Central)

Olalquiaga, Celeste & Lisa Blackmore, Downward spiral: El Heliocoide's decent from mall to prison, Terreform, NA935.6 D69 2018

Blakemore, Erin, "Poorhouses were designed to punish people for their poverty," History, August 29, 2018

Heath, Sidney, Old English houses of alms: a pictorial record with architectural and historical notes, 1910 (via Archive.org)

Jackson, Christine, “A Study of Early Seventeenth-Century Workhouse Design and Building in Reading and Newbury,” Architectural History, 2004, Vol. 47, p.77-112 (via Jstor)

Johnson, Alexander, Almshouse Construction and Management, 1911 (via Archive.org)

Related topics

Alexander, Larry, et al, Crime and culpability: a theory of criminal law, Cambridge University Press, 2009 (via Ebook Central)

Barlow, Hugh D. & David Kauzlarich, Explaining crime: a primer in criminological theory, Rowman & Littlefield, 2010 (via Ebook Central)

Law Commission of Canada, What is a crime?, UBC Press, 2004 (via Ebook Central)

Tierney, John, Key perspectives in criminology, McGraw-Hill Education, 2009 (via Ebook Central)

Brown, Beverly & Neil MacCormick, “Philosophy of Law,” in The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 1998

Dworkin, Ronald, Justice for hedgehogs, Harvard University Press, 2011 (via Ebook Central)

Godfrey, Barry & Graeme Dunstall, Crime and empire, 1840-1940, Willan Publishing, 2005 (via Ebook Central)

Hefner, Robert W., Sharia politics: Islamic law and society in the modern world, Indiana University Press, 2011 (via Ebook Central)

Hoskins, Zachary and Antony Duff, "Legal Punishment", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2022 

Robinson, Paul H. & Michael T. Cahill, Law without justice: why criminal law doesn't give people what they deserve, Oxford University Press, 2006 (via Ebook Central)

Adelsberg, Geoffrey, et al, Death and other penalties: philosophy in a time of mass incarceration, Fordham University Press, 2015 (via Ebook Central)

Carceral, K. C. & Thomas J. Bernard, Prison, Inc: a convict exposes life inside a private prison, New York University Press, 2006 (via Ebook Central)

Cusack, Annabelle, "Understanding the prison industrial complex in the US and UK: for beginners," Medium, August 16, 2020

Gottschalk, Marie, Caught: the prison state and the lockdown of American politics, Princeton University Press, HV9471 .G667 2016

Kicenski, Karyl, Cashing in on crime: the drive to privatize California state prisons, First Forum Press, Incorporated, 2014 (via Ebook Central)

Kilgore, James William, Understanding mass incarceration: a people’s guide to the key civil rights struggle of our time, The New Press, 2015 (via Ebook Central)

Lopez, German, "The controversial 1994 crime law that Joe Biden helped write, explained," Vox, updated September 29, 2020

Lynch, Michael J., Big prisons, big dreams: crime and the failure of America's penal system, Rutgers University Press, 2007 (via Ebook Central)

Melamed, Samantha, "Incarceration: inventing solitary," Philadelphia Enquirer, June 8, 2022

Sawyer, Wendy, "Visualizing the racial disparities in mass incarceration," Prison Policy Initiative, July 27, 2020 (blog post)

Schlosser, Eric, "The Prison-Industrial Complex," The Atlantic Monthly, December 1998 (via theatlantic.com)

Alexander, Patrick Elliot, “Education as liberation,” South: a scholarly journal, Fall 2017, p.9-21 (PDF via Jstor)

Allen, Amy, “Justice and reconciliation: the death of the prison,” Human Studies, December 2007, p.311-321 (PDF via Jstor)

Davis, Angela Y., Are prisons obsolete? Seven Stories Press, 2003 (ebook via Proquest Ebook Central)

Gilmore, Ruth Wilson, Abolition geography : essays towards liberation, Verso, HV9950 .G55 2022

Paris, Jeffrey, “Decarceration and the philosophies of mass imprisonment,” Human Studies, December 2007, p.323-343 (PDF via Jstor)

Robinson, Nathan J., "Can prison abolition ever be pragmatic?Current Affairs, August 3, 2017

Scott, David & Helen Codd, “Beyond penal controversies: towards abolitionism,” in Controversial issues in prisons, McGraw-Hill Education, 2010 (via Ebook Central)

Washington, John, “What is prison abolition?The Nation, July 31, 2018 (via thenation.com)

Alonso, Joan Alcobé, “Prison cells,” Mark: Another Architecture, April/May 2017, p.36-37

The future of prison: Frank Gehry and Gehry Partners Advanced Design Studio,” SCI-Arc Channel, published October 4, 2017 (via YouTube)

Lambert, Léopold, “Outrage,” Architectural Review, June 2018, p.82-83

Lambert, Léopold, “Break out,” Topos, 2018, #104, p.80-85

Sperry, Raphael, “Discipline and punish,” Architectural Review, April 2014, p.22-23

Alternative keywords for searching

Alien detention centers, Central intake centers, Correctional facilities, Courthouses, Courtrooms, Criminal justice, Criminology, Detention centers, Deviance, Direct supervision management, Gulags, Law enforcement, Law offices, Law schools, Penology,  Police academies, Police schools, Police stations, Poorhouses, Prison films, Prison industrial complex, Prison industries, Prisoners of war, Prisons, Public safety centers, Punishment, Reformatories, Rehabilitation, Secret police, Workhouses

Please note

  • These guides are intended to provide initial orientation, and suggest a variety of different lines of investigation—not take the place of individual research.
  • All the resources cited here--print and digital--are available through the Kappe Library at SCI-Arc.Items not available at SCI-Arc are not included.
  • Surveys covering multiple projects are preferred over monographic studies focusing on specific works or individuals.
  • Resources on Los Angeles and Southern California are stressed.
  • Proprietary digital resources (Avery Index, Oxford Art Online, ArtStor, etc) can be accessed on-campus at SCI-ARC via any SCI-Arc internet provider. Off-campus they can be accessed 24/7 via the Kappe Library proxy server, and a valid SCI-Arc Network username and password.

The Kappe Library at SCI-Arc

The Kappe Library hours:
Monday, Tuesday & Thursday: 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Wednesday & Friday : 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Saturday: Noon to 6:00 p.m.
Sunday: Noon to 10:00 p.m.
 
Access Kappe Library online resources:
 
Be sure to activate EZProxy to access all proprietary databases: