Planning and Design Network

ICPA 2025 Presentation by Marayca Lopez and Steve Carter (PID302)

Authors

Marayca Lopez

Justice+Civic Planning Leader, ICPA Planning and Design Network Board Liaison, DLR Group, United States

Marayca is an expert consultant of distinguished ability and accomplishment in the field of criminal justice with an extensive education and international background in penology and criminology. Having exclusively dedicated her academic and professional careers to the justice sector, she possesses a keen understanding of the overall criminal justice system.

Her body of work is international in scope. She has participated in a wide array of criminal justice reform projects and prison studies, both domestically in the USA and abroad (e.g., Australia, Canada, Europe, Central and South America), resulting in worldwide expertise and a deep understanding of correctional best practices, prison operations, and innovative models for offender management and intervention.

In her current role as a Justice and Civic Sector Planning Leader for DLR Group she is responsible for planning and programming multiple correctional facilities that are holistic in their approach, preserve human rights, promote rehabilitation, healing, and treatment, are safe and humane, and focused on innovative operational and programmatic models for positive behavioral change and successful re-entry.

Whether as volunteer, collaborator, or lobbyist, she is actively involved with different international organizations that share the common goal of advancing the field of criminal justice and improving conditions of confinement for individuals deprived of liberty. She has an on-going collaboration with the UN Friends of Corrections and Penal Reform International (PRI) on issues related to the humanization of prisons, monitoring of detention practices, and improvement of incarceration conditions.

Stephen Carter

Executive Vice President, ICPA Planning and Design Network Co-chair, CGL Companies, United States

Stephen Carter is the Founder and Executive Vice President of CGL. Mr. Carter is personally involved in technical studies in the areas of needs assessment, operational and architectural programming, design review, program management, and policy evaluation, among others. In the area of international justice, Mr. Carter has advised the Governments of Argentina, Australia, Aruba, Bermuda, Canada, Ecuador, Israel, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Peru, United Kingdom, Romania, United Arab Emirates, the Republic of South Africa, the Republic of Georgia, Singapore, Trinidad Tobago, and Venezuela. Mr. Carter was a founding Board Member, and past Treasurer of the International Corrections and Prisons Association. He has served as Chairman of the American Correctional Association Facility Design Committee, as Chairman of the ACA Exemplary Practices Council, and was Chairman of the ICPA Planning and Design Network. Mr. Carter writes a regular column on trends in corrections for the Correctional News periodical and is a frequent contributor to the AIA Knowledge Communities periodicals. He continues to serve as a guest speaker or lecturer in a variety of academic, professional, and international forums. Mr. Carter received his bachelor’s degree in architecture from Clemson University and his master’s degree in urban design and planning from the Architectural Association, London, England. Additional post-graduate studies were completed in Economics at the London School of Economics, in Transportation Planning at Imperial College, and in Sociology at the University of South Carolina.

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