Prison architect optimal layout1/9/2024 ‘The question that got them reeling – and then thinking – was “if a relative of yours experienced a period of custody here, would they not only be safe and treated decently, but be able to thrive and flourish?” Architects tend to think empathically about care homes as they can imagine themselves getting old, but they never think about themselves or a relative ending up in prison. Jewkes has been working with the Irish Prison Service to write the design brief for a new prison in Limerick. If we lock people up in cages they respond to these behavioural cues by behaving like animals.’ While she understands the reluctance of the American architects, Jewkes believes the involvement of the profession has the potential to be a force for good: ‘Architects may be very limited in what they can do to be rehabilitative, but by instilling concepts in the design, such as trust and respect and dignity, they can help people on their journey and invest in their futures.’Įast Jutland State Prison was designed like a village, with everything in separate buildings so that inmates get to walk in the fresh air every day. ‘This approach has no hope of rehabilitating anybody. ‘The supermax is the most inhumane and barbaric idea,’ says criminologist and prison architecture specialist Professor Yvonne Jewkes. For their one hour of exercise, they walk around in an equally tiny cage, walled on four sides and with a mesh cutting them off from the sky. Credit: Friis and Moltke Architectsĭespite the deleterious effects of solitary confinement on mental health having been documented for well over a century, prisoners in supermax spent 23 hours a day in small, bare, permanently illuminated concrete cells, given food through a slot in the door. Around 25,000 of those are held in supermax prisons where, according to ADPSR’s petition, ‘solitary confinement is an intolerable form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment’.Įast Jutland State Prison was the first new prison in Denmark for more than 30 years and replaced a 150-year-old facility with something far less institutional. The USA incarcerates more people per 100,000 of population that any country in the world – 655 per 100,000 compared with 172 in Australia, 139 in England and Wales, 63 in Norway and 51 in Finland. The concerns reflect the fact that American prison design is perhaps the most extreme example of architecture as punishment. It can also be controversial – a group of architects in the USA, ADPSR (Architects/ Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility), even petitioned the American Institute of Architects to amend its code of ethics to prevent members from working on prison projects because of fears over human rights. It will never make you a household name and your creative thought will forever be stifled by inflexible security rules and budget constraints. We look at prison design around the world and how architects must balance the need for both security and humanityĪs a field of expertise, prison design is not glamorous.
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