Introduction

In this world we can’t say it is still safe because as day goes by, crime became common. The
numbers of crime increase day by day, the world become harmful. We can’t predict on how, why, when
and where does a crime will happen. It can be now, tomorrow or it already happened yesterday.
Suspects maybe a shoplifter, kidnapper, drug addicts or even a murderer. Here in the Philippines we are
now lacking of jails where we can put these prisoners. Jails are not enough to penetrate more suspects
into it. Another problem is, even the tambay (slang word for bystander), those who violated curfews and
those shirtless, probably men, on the street can be arrest and imprison.

According to Professor Dr Raymund E. Narag of Southern Illinois University’s Department of

Criminology and Criminal Justice, The WAR on drugs and the mass arrest of the loiterers and the
shirtless under the Administration of Pres. Rodrigo Duterte have driven a massive humanitarian crisis.
Philippine Jails and detention centers are now the most crowded in the world surpassing the formerly
topnotcher Haiti.

Increasing the population of inmates causes not only the lack of beds and lack of ventilation but
also lack of drinking water lead to the higher possibility of causing them to easily get sick and diseases.
According to Dr. Narag, In Quezon City Jail Male Dorm alone, around 3 to 5 inmates die every month due
to simple and easy-to-treat diseases like manas (swelling), skin diseases, as well as heart attack - all
because of lack of ventilation and lack of access to medical care. In the whole Metro Manila, around 40
inmates or Persons Deprived of Liberties (PDLs) die every month in the different Bureau of Jail
Management and Penology (BJMP) Jails.

Philippines really needed to build more jails provincially or municipality.

It is not that easy to build jails. There’s lot of considerations in constructing a jail. What would be
it looks like? What are the proper way of making jails? Where it would be constructed? How many
prisoners it can be occupied?

This research is methodologically constructed to provide enough studies and references on

constructing jails. This article provides learning about how to construct a jail not about prisoners. This
article is intended for architects to be a guide and a starting point for further research; it does not
attempt to discuss issue about the life of inmates which how they got in or out. Furthermore, it focuses
on state and local – not federal – prisoners.
Definition of the Problem

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Jail is a place where people are kept when they have
been arrested and are being punished for a crime while Town is a place where people live that is larger
than a village but smaller than a city. So basically a town jail is the bastille of a municipality.

The objective of a prison is threefold:

 To protect society from offenders who cannot serve their sentence within the community due to
the severity or nature of their crime
 To carry out the sentence imposed by a recognized legal process
 To provide a safe and decent regime to help rehabilitate offenders so that they can lead useful
and purposeful lives while in prison and upon release

Everyone must considered the fact that jail is a place for inmates to reconcile of their offending
behaviour. It must be a place that inmates can enjoy freedom despite of what they have done.
Therefore, jails must be habitable and doesn’t make interns look like sardines that place together in a
small space. Jails should be enough to accommodate lot of inmates and append capacity as number of
inmates increased.
SECTION A

General considerations in the planning of prisons

For any long-term facility, the decisions made at the front end of the design process will have far
reaching implications throughout the operational life-cycle of a prison facility, with significant impact
upon its functionality and the ability of prison management to conduct a safe, secure, and decent
regime that meets international norms.

Because of the time, cost, and operational implications of changing the design process in the course of
planning and construction, it is crucial that the initial planning be as thorough and comprehensive as
possible

An essential component of sound prison design, and a major element of this manual, is to include
considerations of prison management as early as possible in the planning process. Without sufficient
attention to these operational implications, prison staff will seek to maintain order within the
constraints of existing infrastructure, and often in violation of international norms and expectations. By
attending to these factors, a design can significantly contribute to both a safe and decent outcome for
prisoners and staff.

It is also important to note that each individual prison or refurbishment project is unique and presents
its own challenges and opportunities—a “one size fits all” approach is not appropriate, as one prison
design or refurbishment model cannot be transposed to different locations. Similarly, when considering
even basic compliance or best practices in prison design and refurbishment, care must be taken to
decide whether specific measures can be successfully incorporated into the proposed project setting.

The rest of this section includes some additional general considerations to be kept in mind during the
design of prisons. A few are generally beyond the direct control of a design development team, while
others are essential components of a smart and effective design. In all situations, however, an
awareness of these considerations should inform the design process.

A1 FUNDAMENTALS OF PRISON DESIGN

The design and planning of prison facilities should take into account a few basic propositions:

1. Physical requirements for prisons involve more than cell dimensions

2. A prison requires more space than the sum of areas required for each function

3. Good security increases prisoner freedom

4. A prison costs more to build than other buildings

5. Separation of categories
1. Physical requirements for prisons involve more than cell dimensions

A prison should provide safe and secure conditions for prisoners and staff, and a decent quality of life.
This depends on the provision of basic living conditions (light, water, sanitation, etc.) for an appropriate
number of prisoners in a given physical living space, the necessary regulation and control of movement,
and various facilities to provide an effective regime that supports the rehabilitation of prisoners.

Some of these conditions are easily defined and have measurable parameters. However, a prison is
neither safe, functional nor humane by providing sufficient space and essential services. Though cells
may be large enough to accord with international expectations, prisoners must also be allowed to spend
most of their waking hours outdoors or in day-rooms to every extent that this is possible and
practicable. Likewise, prisons should have the physical infrastructure to promote a safe environment
that supports the rehabilitation of prisoners, providing them with access to work, education, and
programmes to help them address their offending behaviour.

2. A prison requires more space than the sum of areas required for each function

In planning for a prison, it is critical to understand the difference between net space and gross space.
However, there are multiple approaches for calculating net to gross ratios, and planners should be
aware of these choices and their implications. Some design briefs include areas for mechanical,
electrical, and IT rooms, as well as for toilets and showers, while others do not. As a result, design briefs
can vary considerably in their depiction of net area. It is important to clarify this aspect to ensure that
the total area requirements are understood.

In the diagram on the next page and throughout this document and the accompanying tool, net usable
area (NUA) is all the floor area that can be used by people, for functions or equipment. It excludes space
occupied by building structure, walls, corridors, staircases, and elevators.

Gross floor indoor area (GFIA) includes all of the above and all internal walls, but not external walls. All
areas in this guidance document are net usable areas, unless otherwise indicated.

The gross floor area (GFA) is the total amount of space that a building occupies, including external walls.
For a prison in a warm climate, with mostly outdoor circulation (without corridors), the net to gross
percentage may be around 30-40 percent. In a colder climate and for multi-storied buildings with indoor
circulation, the relationship may be closer to 50-70 percent.

3. Good security increases prisoner freedom

A prison that is controlled, safe and secure can allow the prisoner population a greater degree of
freedom.

Given a secure cellblock yard, for example, prison staff can allow prisoners free access to the open
space. However, if there are questions about their ability to secure control, prison staff is likely to
prevent prisoners from moving outside their locked cells, thus reducing or eliminating the use of spaces
intended to benefit prisoners.
From a building design standpoint, prisons are partly process-oriented (like airports or factories) and
partly space-oriented (like schools or offices). The active motion of prisoners (process) is tightly
controlled, but prisoners ought to be free to move around within specific spaces. In the same vein as
above, if prisoner movement between spaces is not well controlled, then prison staff will control
prisoners within spaces. Creating a physical environment where prisoner movement is easily controlled
can allow prison staff to let prisoners out of their cells during day hours to spend more time engaged in
positive activities.

4. A prison costs more to build than other buildings Unless it is a low risk, open prison, a prison is
generally enclosed with at least one, and often two, walls or fences, depending upon the level of risk
that the prisoners pose to prison security and the public. Prisons with high risk prisoners will likely have
internal fences to create zoning to control movement within the prison and to define specific areas of
activity such as work, education, administration, etc. Also, because prisons are part of public security
infrastructure, building codes generally require them to be built to a higher structural standard than
commercial buildings, implying additional cost.

For these and other reasons required to secure a prison, the necessary materials will generally be more
durable than for other buildings. Walls may be thicker, requiring more material and labour, particularly
in low-tech environments, or secured by the use of stronger and more expensive materials.

Windows and doors for a prison can be many times more costly than those for an office or a school, as
they generally need to be augmented with specialized features, ensuring that security is maintained
alongside good lighting and ventilation. Prisons normally have many more doors than typical buildings,
both indoors and outside, in order to control prisoner movement. Ceilings and floors must be made
robust to prevent prisoners from breaking into the upper levels of the prison (such as the roof space) or
tunnelling down in an attempt to escape or cause disruption in the prison. Likewise, fixtures and fittings
such as toilets, taps, door hardware, hooks, railings, latches, cabinets, furniture, etc., must be made of
durable materials to reduce the likelihood of damage, sabotage, or manipulation toward violence or
self-harm.

Because prisons are expensive to build, it is important to understand the profile of the prisoners that the
prison intends to hold. Prisons that hold higher security prisoners tend to be more expensive due to the
necessary security features that must be incorporated into the design. Understanding the risk level of
prisoners allows the prison design to be adapted to the appropriate level of security, avoiding
unnecessary security features and the associated costs.

Finally, particularly in developing countries, prisons must often provide their own infrastructure for
water, sewage, power, and sometimes roads. For all of the above reasons, prisons entail significantly
increased costs in comparison to other building infrastructure.

The funding process for new and refurbished prisons will vary according to the country, its political,
social and economic situation, as well as other factors such as financial support from outside donors. In
general, at the time when the construction or refurbishment of a prison is approved, adequate finances
should be allocated for the costs of the prison infrastructure and its subsequent operation, including
maintenance.