Beverly Prior presented “Correctional Facilities Connecting with the Community” at the 2013 ACA Winter Conference in Houston. During her presentation, she reviewed the Sustainable Justice Ratings Guide. The SJ Ratings Guide broadens assessment beyond the facility scale to sustainability at the societal, community, and human scales.

Beverly, along with HMC’s Julia Hughes and the AIA Sustainable Justice Committee,  continue the development of the Sustainable Justice Ratings Guide a custom methodology or scoring system to specifically evaluate justice facilities within the context of sustainable principles that uniquely expands the definition of leadership for sustainable environments, communities, and society at-large.

The Sustainable Justice Ratings Guide has a 2030 planning horizon for the long term impacts of sustainable justice. The Ratings Guide does not compete with USGBC LEED criteria, rather it augments sustainable building design and construction criteria and focuses on the whole system from societal impacts to the engagement of the individual. The Ratings Guide is based on four scales:  The Societal Scale; The Community Scale; The Facility Scale; and The Human Scale.

— It is intended to encourage a broader role of sustainability for our justice facilities in our society as well as their impact on communities and individuals.
— Goals are defined based on Sustainable Justice Principles that reach far beyond materials, methods, and the physical and earth energy resource conservation of physical plant construction and performance standards.
— Desired outcomes are defined by metrics and reference standards and resources that provide reinforce the unique link public facilities have with, and contribution to a successfully sustainable community and society.