Examining New York's overlooked infrastructures of crime and punishment.

How can we define the “criminal justice system”? What is it, where is it, and what are all of the things that it does?

Arrest sends New Yorkers down a complex path, away from their families, homes, and neighborhoods, oftentimes ending in jail. A drawing describes the spaces they encounter on the way.

The buildings where fates, freedoms, and justice are decided sit at the center of our image of the justice system. What form should they take? How should they work?

The city's plans call for new borough jails to replace those at Rikers. A set of drawings examines land uses in the boroughs' civic centers to consider: Can New Yorkers accept jails as neighbors?

The city oversees an experiment: Can new signage and instructions improve experiences in New York’s busiest criminal courthouse?

What is gained, and what is lost, when justice takes place outside public view?

New spaces for justice replace punishment with problem solving and hierarchy with community.

Mayor de Blasio promises to close the Rikers Island jail complex in ten years. But what comes next? A look at the island’s history reveals clues — and cautions.

Frank Greene and Kenneth Ricci discuss the changing paradigms of half a century of justice architecture and what we should ask — and expect — from courts and jails.

For decades, city governments have pledged to clear neighborhood streets of crime and police abuse in the same stroke. But can community policing deliver on its promises?

In the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, an architect and planner forges connections and fashions safety in fifteen neighborhoods.

Young residents of Brownsville, Brooklyn, look for safety amidst persistent poverty and crime, as well as community organizations determined to change the neighborhood's narrative.

For decades, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design has touted the efficacy of bollards, gates, and cameras in deterring violent acts — with scant evidence. At what cost do we build “defensible space”?

Photographer Kris Graves tracks all 77 NYPD precincts from Tottenville to Edenwald, looking to these buildings — sometimes humble, sometimes imposing — for the face and footprint of law and order in the neighborhood.

Where can teenagers hang out and be safe in public?

People trying to stay connected to their loved ones in New York's jails and prisons must travel great distances and navigate intimidating rules and requirements.

As police personnel and machinery have settled into New York City schools, the line between school discipline and criminal punishment has become blurry.

For doctors trying to provide mental health care to people who are incarcerated or detained by the New York City Department of Corrections, city jails pose a challenge — and provide an opportunity.

The NYPD vaunts crime mapping technologies from CompStat maps to a vast networked surveillance infrastructure. Who benefits?

28 maps track the networks of consultancy through which CompStat's architects spread the gospel — often for a tidy fee.

A huge range of emergent technologies give police new ways to gather data and surveil. What's on the market?

Where do the street trees come from, and where does the compost go? Rikers Island was the city’s growing outpost for years. But does “greening” the prison always improve things for prisoners?

People returning to city life after time in prison will soon be able to find help at some branch libraries. How can designers help librarians create life-saving connections?

Formerly incarcerated people reassemble their lives at the Castle, a singular housing facility and a supportive home base created by The Fortune Society.

How can we define the “criminal justice system”? What is it, where is it, and what are all of the things that it does?