Deanna Van Buren designs alternatives to prisons and jails. You can see examples of her work here. Her inspiration includes Angela Davis and Davis’ sister, Fania, who led the international campaign to secure Angela’s release from prison. Van Buren has made it her business to break the cycle of trying to rethink the criminal justice system without abandoning the system. “You have to abandon the system because the system hasn’t changed its root values. It still wants to do the same thing over and over again,” Van Buren said, according to Vogue: “If the values of our justice system are punitive, security-oriented and structurally racist, even a completely reimagined prison building will affirm and embody those ideas.”
