Open House at the Brooklyn House of Detention

Visiting the Brooklyn House of Detention --- technically known as the Brooklyn Detention Complex and soon to reopen after an eight-and-a-half-year refurbishment --- during yesterday's open house was not exactly a fun weekend outing. The staff could not have been any nicer, sure, but you're still visiting a jail. Given the centrality of prisons to modern American life, seeing the inside of one is a duty rather than a pleasure, and the willingness of the Department of Corrections to open its doors is reason to hope that more people may care about what we do to our fellow citizens when we arrest them.