Incarceration: Scapegoat 7 (Scapegoat, Fall/Winter 2014)

This issue of Scapegoat addresses the design and construction of spaces of punishment from an abolitionist perspective, insisting emphatically on the abolition of all forms of incarceration as a key component in the struggle against wider systems and practices of domination. We hope that this edition will address some of the persistent questions of how to understand incarceration, and how and why to realize its annihilation. This issue was conceived to advance this discussion not only for architects, scholars, and activists, but also for prisoners, families, friends, and other allies. It was composed from a selection of open-call submissions and regrettably does not manage to cover the full spectrum of voices of those who are deeply and directly affected by incarceration, particularly the voices of women in prison. Despite these gaps, our hope is that this is an issue that has something for everyone concerned. Prison abolition is a highly misunderstood and scandalizing proposition, and we hope that there are enough entry points here to contribute in some way to broadening the understanding of these issues, to cultivating alliances, and implementing tactics and strategies of transformative justice. The list of contributors to this issue, from outside and inside, includes (in order of appearance): Liat Ben-Moshe, Raphael Sperry, Jenna M. Loyd, Magdalena Milosz, William Orr, Matthew Ferguson, Elizabeth Lay, Justin Piché, Kevin Walby, Lynne Horiuchi, Lisbet Portman, Eileen Wennekers, Tings Chak, FATS, George Frison, William Jones, Erica R. Meiners, James Piggues, Sarah Ross, Johnny Taylor, Devon Terrell, Fereshteh Toosi, Alan White, Peter Collins, Derrick Quintero, Harold W. Nichols, Ojore Lutalo, Joseph Dole, Margarita Osipian, Spatial Information Design Lab, Stephen Tourlentes, Josh MacPhee, and Irmgard Emmelhainz.