Prisons

Homeland Security is looking to change the way the detention of nonviolent undocumented immigrants is handled. Among the ideas for a more appropriate detention system: converting hotels and nursing homes to hold people who are not accused of crimes.

A prison design in Austria that emphasizes inmate comfort and dignity raises questions about the role architecture and design plays in preventing or encouraging more crime.

The City of Santee is using Twitter and Facebook to protest a planned prison expansion on nearby county land.

Prisons around the country are looking less and less like the typical concrete box; Washington state has 34 LEED-certified prisons, some of which offer "green work" programs.

Prison construction is flourishing under the assumption that it boosts rural economies, but as Eric Lotke points out, investing in other types of building would yield greater returns to society.

Neal Pierce looks at America's addiction to incarceration and drug prohibition and wonders what -- if anything -- the presidential candidates would do to change the country's course.