state:
Texas
Local history:
Spatial Stories of Migration and Detention
How does architecture shape punishment?
University of Texas at Austin | Grassroots Leadership | Casa Marianella
Exhibiting Partner:
Mebane Gallery, University of Texas, Austin School of Architecture
310 Inner Campus Drive B7500, Austin, TX 78712-1009
October 5, 2016October 21, 2016

States of Incarceration is now at the Levine Museum in Charlotte, NC

States of Incarceration is extended in NC! September 23, 2023 - January 31, 2023 at the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, NC!

401 S Tryon St, Charlotte, NC 28202

go to www.museumofthenewsouth.org for more information.

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Texas: Spatial Stories of Migration and Detention
How does architecture shape punishment?
University of Texas at Austin | Grassroots Leadership | Casa Marianella

Texas has 26 detention centers, 5 prisons, and 2 county jails used to detain migrants in connection with immigration proceedings or immigration related crimes. The majority of these facilities have been built since 2005, when private prison corporations (building on post 9/11 immigration legislation) began heavily lobbying Congress. With more detention centers than any other state, Texas can imprison an estimated 34,767 migrants daily. Despite Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s mandate to “ensure the safety, privacy, and basic human rights of all detainees,” the architecture of detention tells a different story. The buildings’ geographic location, materials, and spatial organization, as well as migrants’ experiences detained, reveal how “administrative” detention punishes. Detention centers are located out of public view, and largely impervious to investigation—although taxpayers finance the buildings. This project unveils the architecture of detention and migrants’ experiences in detention centers by documenting where they are, what they are, and who they incarcerate.

Our Point of View

Graduate students from the School of Architecture and the Humanities who have never experienced detention or international migration learned about the complexities of migrant detention and the injustices taking place in Texas by engaging in two main strategies. First, we mapped the physical locations, architectural forms, and building history of detention centers. Second, people who had been held in detention centers created visual stories of their migration journeys and experiences in detention.

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Texas: Spatial Stories of Migration and Detention    University of Texas at Austin
How does architecture shape punishment?
Texas: Spatial Stories of Migration and Detention
How does architecture shape punishment?
  University of Texas at Austin

National Exhibition Venue    Mebane Gallery, University of Texas, Austin School of Architecture

Public Dialogues and Events
| October 5 – October 21, 2016

See Full Exhibition & Events Schedule
“This system is cruel, corrupt, and often inhumane. If we don't speak, if we don't share the stories, no one will ever know what is going on.”  — Karen Keith
“I have been detained. I was probably 8 or 9. My mother and I were crossing the border through the San Diego border sector. All I remember is someone yelling at us. Then running and finally a Migra putting us in the back of a truck. I gave the Migra a false name, we were detained for a few hours, and then released in Tijuana. My father was waiting for us in Mexico. ”  — Anonymous Exhibition Visitor

Local Issue Partner:

Grassroots Leadership

Events:

Date: 
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Date: 
Monday, October 10, 2016

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