So my piece on medieval urbanism got a hit from my friend Jesse Walker at Reason Magazine. And through that hit I got turned on to Bryan Finoki and Subtopia. I should’ve known there’d be a resource like this…

Anyway, hitting a link at random I stumbled on the creative prison project, and reading about it got me to thinking. I know what the hurdles would be to engaging in this type of project in the states–prisons represent a cottage industry for poor rural cities, for their political representatives, and for both political parties (though arguably it benefits Republicans more by increasing their voting power). And Bryan’s on point here:

we can innovate alternative prisons, but shouldn’t we be putting equal if not more emphasis on devising alternatives to prisons altogether? So, yeah, what would a fantasy prison look like, but how about – what would a fanstasy rehabilitative society look like, can we imagine this without stooping to the production of more prison space?

Is it possible to do both simultaneously?