MASS Design Group

“Keeping people in these spaces—spaces designed for punishment, for isolation, for confinement—is inhumane, it is torture, it is a death sentence. [W]e fail to even notice them as aberrations, as intentional, as designs themselves, meant not for people but for the torture of people. We fail to see it as any different than it must have always been, we fail to see it as our fault.” – Michael Murphy, founding principal and executive director, MASS Design Group

Despite the proven economic and social advantages of direct supervision prototypes, our country continues to build correctional facilities according to outdated models. MASS Design Group challenges this by exploring the built environment’s role in accelerating decarceration and promoting reentry. Its Restorative Justice Design Lab aims to change both the demand for improved spaces and the supply of architects who can implement those strategies.

Art for Justice supports MASS Design Group work to increase advocacy and training in hopes of transforming the way our nation views criminal justice. Through case studies, historical analysis and partner insight, it hopes to inspire a national narrative that values and calls for restorative justice infrastructure.