Several times we have posted images that reflect the realities of life within the U.S. prison system — for instance, photos of the impacts of overcrowding, life in juvenile detention centers, prison cemeteries, and the fate of prisoners during Hurricane Katrina. Alexander A. sent in a link to another striking collection of images of the corrections system. Josh Begley, a master’s student at NYU, collected aerial views of correctional facilities available from Google. His resulting project, Prison Map, makes visible an element of our society that most people rarely think about as actual, physical locations existing on the landscape. I’ve picked a few examples here, but I highly recommend going to the Prison Map website and looking at it in its entirely, which allows you to pick up on common patterns in the design of prisons.

Also check out the article about the Prison Map project at The Atlantic.