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Alcatraz
photo by Watkins
Prison in Austria
Photo by Josef Hohensinn
Front View
Photo by Josef Hohensinn
Crowded Calif. State Prison L.A.
Photo by Rich Pedroncelli
Overcrowded Prisons
As you can see in this picture, it is extremelly overcrowded which causes tension between the inmates. This leads to violence to other inmates or prison employees.
ABSTRACT
The prison designs you primarily see before the 1970’s, were windowless cells of minimal size that only held one inmate, for there were no group cells. The cells themselves were stacked high on top of each other, getting up to six tiers. These cells overlooked the high ceiling common area, to where the correctional officers only way to observe the inmates activities was by looking up or walking down the tiers. This type of design was not made for safety, but convenience, whether it was because of building time or cost of building materials. Inmates could easily throw weapons at other inmates or correctional officers down below, seriously injuring them.
The purpose of this paper is to determine how to improve prison safety for inmates, prison employees, and civilians through better design. The cells themselves are a huge part of safety design, through hiding contraband or making home made weapons from items they have or building materials from the prison cell materials, all aspects of the cell must be considered. Inmates can cut through the cell bars in a couple of days with homemade saws, giving them a chance to escape. Designers also have different views on how the prison cells should be designed, whether all cells hold only one inmate or more. A portion of inmate deaths that occur in the prisons happen in their cells that they share with another inmate. There are problems with designing cells for only one inmate, for almost every prison is over populated.
The site location of a prison can also coincide with the neighborhood reactions. There is a lot of concern from people when prisons are located too close to their neighborhoods. They want to feel safe, in case of an escape. Having prisons designed and located in more isolated areas would decrease these concerns.
The inmates and prison employees should have a great impact on prison design. The prison employees should feel as safe as possible from the inmates, and also inmates should feel safe from one another. There should not be designs with stairwells and other areas that are not as easily accessed and that obscure the views from the prison employees. A majority of criminal activity in prisons happens in these areas where it is not as easy to be seen. Whether it is an inmate attacking another inmate or correctional officer, and/or conducting weapon and drug trafficking, a proper prison design can efficiently minimize this criminal activity.
There are many negative physiological effects that can be avoided with good design. When a prison is of poor design, inmates can have a lower sense of well being. The human relationships that they do have can become strained and they can become violent towards other inmates or prison employees. Prison Designs should have a more “positive” feeling to them, so inmates and prison employees will have less tension in their surroundings.
In future design, cells should be minimal maintenance with a maximum standard in safety. Fixtures, bunks, and shelving should be made of stainless steel with all round edges. This would stop inmates from hurting themselves or making weapons. Having the walls covered in sheets of Teflon, making it impossible to breach, with cameras and motion detectors located behind the prison cells would also increase safety. The doors could be made of bullet-proof glass that latches into the wall with only a slot opening. This will enable prison employees to watch the activities of the inmates carefully and to keep themselves safe.
This paper should offer a valuable approach to prison design and the important issues that are involved. These issues play a major role in designing prisons and show the impact they have in safety of inmates, prison employees and civilians. There should be more emphasis on safety rather than the convenience or cost in building of a prison, for in the end, the most safe prison will end up having more positive physiological effects for everyone.
25 comments:
I hope this book adds in your research on prisions. The Austrain prison picture looks neat :)
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Prison-Architecture-Leslie-Fairweather/9780750642125-item.html?pticket=ulhn2p55gzv4nwq0he5x3a45boWuMSjEN82kI44VzgmQsYS06ho%3d
While looking up underground buildings I came across the prison designed by Frank Llyod Wright. Located in San Rafael, California, this prison is recessed into the ground.
http://www.dmjmhn.aecom.com/MarketsAndServices/40/00/index.jsp
1. I found an article in the AAJ journal for future prison designs which may be interesting:
http://www.aia.org/nwsltr_caj.cfm?pagename=caj_a_20070119_prison
2. I also found a journal about criminology which had a few interesting articles. You need to sign up to view them, but there was one called "Trends in Prison Design" which sounded interesting, and "The International Study Group on Prison Architecture".
The Frank Lloyd Wright prison is great! I did not know about that one. The Marin County Hall of Justice and civic center that is situated right next to it is quite famous and has been in movies like Gattaca. Remember to post your planning outline.
Natashia;
I found an article based website on prison design. It looks kinda cool, be sure to check out all the links on the left as well.
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0009130
Best Regards;
Jared
The prison by Frank Lloyd Wright is pretty neat and I had know idea he designed one. Thanks for the website.
THX Dawg haha. U should go down to the prison in town here and talk to one of the cops about safety etc. Like its totally small and not that good i'm sure but it's definatly something to compare too.
Good suggestion Brain - about visiting the police station, not about the THX theatre system. While TV certainly would help to pacify the inmates (works for children too!), it is debatable as to how much entertainment the prisoners should be entitled to. Remember to keep your postings professional, as you never know who could be reading them.
Natashia, you could also go to the prison in Dufferin and see what things are like there. I believe it was recently renovated to LEED standards.
Hey Natasha, sorry I took so long to reply, thanks for the book recommendation. I have found some information for you, its an example of a jail build with references to material suppliers and construction team list.
Here is the URL.
http://www.dcd.com/case_studies/0405/040552.html
Hey Natasha
Thanks Matt, That can totally help out my research
I am actually going to talk to a correctional officer at KRCC this week, so thanks for the tip
Morgan,
Thats a good journal article, I actually made a link on my blog to it. Thank you.
Nicole,
Sorry for me taking so long long to comment back. I looked through that book and got it. It is so helpful, thank you very much (It is in my refrences now!!).
Hey Natashia,
I have been looking through different journals of psychology for my project and I'm sure their would be plenty of info for yours concerning overcrowding and such. Check out Pubmed and search the database there. I typed prison overcrowding into the search bar and got a pile of returns, you will just need to sort through to find the most appropriate ones. This is a good site for academic sources.
I just e-mailed you some very interesting pictures. These came from my sister, the RCMP officer. I hope these help.
Here are a few books from Chapters that might help you out!
Prison Architecture
| Hardcover
Leslie Fairweather | Architectural Press | August 21, 2000
Prison Architecture
| Hardcover
Butterworth-Heinemann
Correctional Facility Design and Detailing
| Hardcover
Peter Krasnow | McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing | September 1, 1997
Hope these help!
Hi Natasha
If you want to improve prison design you may want to have knowledge of existing prison designs. This could help you figure out ways to improve things. I found a book called "Forms of Constraint: A History of Prison Architecture" it is written by Norman Bruce Johnston. this site gives a review and description http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5706/is_200107/ai_n23745307. Hope this helps.
Natashia, a friend of mine went on a prison tour in Belgium and has some great pictures of, let's say "unsafe" design. Let me know if you want them.
Shevaun,
I am going to look into the pyschology of priaon design, I think its a good area to cover. Thanks.
Brandy,
I have looked at the book "Correctional Facility Design and Detailing" and it is quite helpful for my research thanks.
Gordon, that would be great, I would love to see those pictures, just let me know when I can see them. Thanks.
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