WE DEMAND HDR INC STOPS ALL PARTICIPATION IN PRISON DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

Read our letter to HDR, Inc here

Formerly incarcerated women, directly impacted people, and designers from across the country are calling on HDR Inc to withdraw from all their projects designing and constructing prisons, jails, and detention centers. HDR is an architecture firm that has designed 275 jails, prisons, and detention centers in the United States and has active contracts to build a $50 million women's prison in MA and a $75 million jail in Texas where abortion has now been criminalized. The Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice, Families for Justice as Healing, Lioness: Justice Impacted Women's Alliance, The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, and Design as Protest have come together to issue these demands to HDR.

We can no longer allow HDR to make billions off the backs of incarcerating our people. We demand that HDR immediately:

1. Pull out of all jail, prison, and detention center construction projects;
2. Commit to no longer designing jails, prisons, and detention centers; and
3. Commit to work with directly impacted people to design community infrastructure to help repair the harm caused by the jails and prisons HDR designed.  

We have asked HDR to meet with us to determine a path forward for #ReimaginingCommunities - not jails and prisons. Despite what HDR says, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women have been clear there is no such thing as a trauma-informed prison. Prisons are sites of sexual violence, tear apart families and communities, and cannot be reformed or redesigned.

Join the Campaign!

Everyone:

Boost our demands on social media using the resources at this link: bit.ly/HDRSocial

HDR Employees: As employee-owners, we call on you to pressure your leadership to turn away from so-called “justice” architecture and devote your  resources to actually helping people and their communities. You can contact us at HDRnonewprisons@gmail.com if you want to see how you can help take this campaign further.

Architects and Designers:

It is time for the industry to reckon with the generations of harm caused by building the infrastructure that has disproportionately incarcerated Black, Brown, and poor communities. Yes, the AIA is opposed to solitary confinement but we need to go further and end design of all prisons and jails. It is not better for your firm to do it rather than a “worse” firm, a prison is a prison. And there are no good prisons. Spread the message on social media, learn what your firm’s relationship to incarceration is, call on your leadership to end prison and jail design, and consider organizing with Design as Protest.

Organizers opposed to HDR projects in their communities:

We’d love for you to join our campaign. Contact us at HDRnonewprisons@gmail.com

Read the full letter to HDR, Inc here