ROLE OF ARCHITECTURE IN DESIGNING PRISONS

The prison climate is the Central concept in the theoretical framework of the life in case
study and similar to notion such as subjective quality of prison life. The present climate has
been described as correctional institutional, social, emotional, organizational and physical
characteristics as perceived by inmates and employees. It is expected that a positive prison
climate will contribute to superior results in terms of well-being, prison behavior, motivation
for treatment, and therapeutic change.
There are many reasons co related with the extremely high prevalence of mental illness in
prisons: the common belief that all individual with mental illness are a public danger: the
general intolerance in certain cultures of challenging or troubling behaviour: the inability of
encourage medication, care and Rehabilitation, and above all, lack of inadequate access to
mental health services.
There are factors that have detrimental effects on mental health in many prisons, including
over crowding, different type of abuses, forced loneliness or vise versa, lack of privacy, lack
of product of interaction, elimination from social networks, uncertainty about potential
prospects (work, relationship etc) and insufficient health services in prison, especially
Mental Health Services. Unfortunately, one common manifestation of the combined effect of
these factor is increased risk of suicide in prison (often related to depression).

Detail and strategies

Cell and Dom occupies appropriate to the inmate type preferably with Emphasis and single
Occupancy
Control of sound levels and elimination of visual conflicts
Provision of decent environment (space, temperature, light, colour or humidity) for inmates
to live and staff to work. Properly detailed and designed exterior cell Windows (when used)
Spatial organisation which accommodates rather than inhibits the flow of activities.
Wall
The thick masonry walls found in older institutional or industrial facilities which create so
much of their appeal generally have limited escape resistance. Unreinforced masonry no
matter how thick, can be penetrated by removing the motor that binds the masonry
together. Masonry walls in jails are generally heavily rainforest and grouted to foil such
efforts. Rectifying wall deficiency in non secure facilities can be very costly, involving options
as varied as
i . Applying the new barriers such as steel plate over the walls and,
ii. Creating fenced perimeters beyond the exterior walls
Single Occupancy
Two frequently cited operation concerns about the use of single Occupancy are suicide and
isolation. However, with the provision of an adjacent day room, serving a variety of single
Occupancy cells the isolation problem is easily resolved. This type of day room provide
ample opportunity for contact between inmates day rooms are required by ACA standards
and many states jail standards.
Main security
Window
- Typically in operable unless heavily screened with security grade products
- Strongest security glass products available
- Security anchor retention grade
Penetration of the main security envelope other than the access points should be secured
- Pass through for such things as packages, money and mail
- duetwork electrical openings
- Roof fan openings
- Air supply grills
- Skylights
Floors
- concrete with various finishes
Walls
- precast or cast in place concrete
- Concrete masonry units reinforced and grouted every 8 to 16 inches on centre Ceilings
Ceilings
- precast or caste in place concrete
- Steel security panels
- Cement plaster on expanded metal lath Roof
Roof
- precast or East in place concrete with built upproofing membrane
- heavy gauge metal deck securely fixed in place with roofing membrane
Master security
- minimise the potential for view conflicts by maximizing the number of areas that must be a
directly absorbed by master control use equipment or partition in master control to screen
views raise the floor height of master control to help limit views
- The prison facilities should be designed in a manner that considers the psychological
health of the Prisoner and create a positive and mentally stimulating environment for
prisoners. In contrast to traditional approaches innovative present design try to make
facilities less 'prison- like' and more focus on the rehabilitation of prisoners’

Prison alarm and alert systems

Developed prison system have alarm alert system that notify staff in case of an incident or a
fire. As with all electronic systems, consideration should be given to the available level of
maintenance support. System that cannot be maintained should not be installed.
Additionally, system that rely on power for operation must understand the quality of
incoming power supply and its security, or use alternative system that is backup generator,
which may entail a significant cost.
Some examples of alert system main include press buttons that are situated at strategic
points throughout the prison; an emergence the telephone system that is separate from the
general system; with alarm buttons on receivers; and sirens and Bells that are linked to the
general alarm system

Fire safety
Detection system for fire, heat and smoke must also be considered and implemented ware
ever possible and practice able. The measure should be fit for purpose designed in
conservation of prison location and the availability of local services and coordinated with
local authorities in addition to the Alert systems discussed below prisons and tell Prisoner to
help mitigate the risk security and frequency of fire particularly in overcrowded conditions.
Similar to the other push button system, a push button can be used to raise the alarm about
a fire in particular area of the prison. The control room can then alert the local fire
department and/ or the prison's designated fire officer so that the prison's fire
fighting/excavation plans can be trigged. Emergency lighting that highlights escape roots and
emergency exits can be crucial life saving features. Whereever water supplies are adequate
dry Riser or sprinkler system maybe put in place to assist staff and emergency services in
controlling fire. Controlable smoke escape vents in building roof should also be considered.
Where water supplies are inadequate for sophisticated fire control system, adequate waters/
buckets and fire extinguishers must be placed around the prison. A Portable water tanker
with pump and hoses maybe necessary in situation where there are no emergency fire
services available, or to help provide and efficient method to quickly control a fire.
Press push button alarms are situated at strategic points around the prison so that staff can
raise the alarm in case of fun act incident in there variety vicinity. Push button alarms are
linked to control room and board that highlights where the alarm was raised. The control
room can then alert staff to respond via radio network designated emergency telephone
system and/or alarm Bells.
A designated emergency telephone system is separated from the general telephone system
in the prison. It links the control room with all the key staff points in the presence (such as
residential units workshops kitchen Healthcare etc). This telephone may be a different color
from general telephone of May have different ringtone to differentiate them as well as easily
memorize number to connect to the control room.
A prison radio network staff to raise and alarm we are the VHF radio system. Some videos
are able to pin point the radio to a location with in the Prison to aid the control room to
identify where and incident has occurred. The radio system have a beep alert to notification
staff of argent information that is upcoming. The control room mein also require radio
system connected to external emergency services.
Sirens and Bells may also be linked to general alarm system to draw staff attention to an
incident.
A key alarm system maybe installed to alert Gate staff in case that a member of the staff
walks out of prison with security still on their person.
TIHAR JAIL
India has a large number of correctional facilities and not all of these are as affective as their
operation as Tihar, with Tales of India's absymal prison conditions coming out over and over,
they face a myraid of issues whether it be the question of overcrowding or poorly run
system of legal assistant for inmates resulting in sub human conditions. Tihar consists of 9
Central and one district goal the located to the current site in 1958 it currently has a capacity
of 6250 prisoners but not just roughly 13000 prisoners on average. Apart from overcrowding
instead of corrections with in the Tihar, there are frequent references to suicide, clashes
murder and distortions. It is not surprising, being the largest Prison in the world that it has
its share of problems facing other prisons and more. Yet tihar's motivating parameter proper
its model to be a case of researching and examination system problems.

Expansion
Continuously expanding still its establishment in the Tihar village area of Delhi in 1958.
Originally till the year 1980 Tihar consists of one Central Jail with the sanction capacity of
1273 prisoners. The present around the mid 1980 was try for created into Central Jail
number 1, 2 and 3 with the collective capacity of 1760 prisoners. In 1980 and other district
jail was constructed in Tihar with the sanction capacity of 740 prisoners. The jail was
elevated to Central Jail number 4 in the year 1990. In 1996, special prison was constructed
for adolescent prisoners between the ages of 18 to 21. The jail, central jail number 5 had a
capacity to Lodge 750 prisoners. In the year 2000, and exclusive Women's Day Central Jail
number 6 was Commission with the capacity to Lords 400 female prisoners. Between 2003
and 2005, 3 central jails with the collective capacity of 1550 prisoners and one district jail at
Rohini with the capacity of 1050 business for Commission by the Delhi prison authority.
- The complex will house 6 days one for convex 14 first time of one for one each for long
term under trails adolescent, women and high security prisoners.
- Air Circulation system in all words.
- No electricity inside the words. In built mechanism for cctv optical fibre cable network.
- Dual water supply system solar heating system RO system, Sewage treatment plant
rainwater harvesting.
- Energy conscious buildings. Provision of separate for high security prisoners and first time
of Indus to ensure total segregation.

Special Courts
Shri AS Anand, honorable Chief Justice of India (retired) correctly at regulated his concerns
about the rising number of prisoners under trail lodged in India various goals. The Delhi High
Court directed the Ld in order to curb this issue. Delhi chief metropolitan magistrate to
organise special courts for petty criminals in central jail of the year and were able to confess.
Legal Aid.
Following are features of Legal Aid activities in jails;
- A free Legal Aid is functioning in each jail in which Stationary items typing materials books
photostat machine etc are provided by the prison administrations.
- DLSA has 28 advocates on its role, who are regularly visiting the legal Aid cells of the jail
and giving legal assistance. They are also associated by the lawyers of the various NGO.
- DHCLSC has 17 advocates on its role for are giving the petitions and appeals of prisoners.
- Regular drafting of application/ petitions/ appeal on of the prisoners by advocate and para
legal aides formed by legal literate prisoners is done.
- The para legal Aides are being given regular training so that legal Aid schemes may
functions smoothly and its benefits may reach deserving Prisoners

Educational facilities.
During their Stay, The Tihar Jail authorities provide the inmates with immense educational
opportunities. The program is structured in such a way that people can easily continue the
education in the external world even after their release and lead a better life. As the website
of the Delhi government Assets, and illiterate person landing in tihar jail can look forward to
being literate if he stays is more than a week. The most important aspects of the education
system in the jail is the educational prisoners voluntarily teach less educated prisoners.
The educational activities organised different level for different categories of prisoners like
illiterate, neo-literates, semi- literates, literates and for those desirous of Getting higher
education. There are study centres of Indira Gandhi National Open University and National
Institute of Open schools from where a Prisoner can pursue his studies and he is given
certificate or degree for that course without mentioning the place of examination being a
jail.
Recreational facilities.
Various programs like 'tihar Olympics' and the 'ethnic Tihar' and good light hearted
recreational facilities for the inmates of the tihar jail . Tihar Olympics is a winter sport festival
organised in Tihar Jail consisting of Sports like volleyball, cricket, basketball, kho kho,
Carrom, etc. The ethnic Tihar on the other hand is held during the spring season and consist
of competitions like music, dance paintings etc. Eminent personality from the Eld of sports
and culture are invited during this competition to boost the morale of the Prisoners. All
religious and national festivals are celebrated by one and all inside the presence. On
Republic Day and Independence Day national flag is hosted in all the prison.
STORSTRØM PRISON
Storstrøm Prison, on the island of Falster — roughly 115km from Copenhagen — has been
designed by Danish architecture practice CF Møller for the country’s Prison and Probation
Service. Following a design competition in 2010, work started in 2012 and the 35,000 sq m
complex opened late last year.

While this forms part of a larger project in which Denmark is renovating or rebuilding its
prisons to make them more efficient and fit for contemporary use, in Storstrøm — a closed,
Category 1 prison, the highest security level in Denmark — the design has focused primarily
on wellbeing. Of staff, yes, but also — crucially — of inmates.

An aerial view shows the prison’s layout.

This can be seen in the en-suite cells with tall, barless windows and flat-screen TVs, which
look more like bright hotel rooms; in the verdant gardens designed by a landscape architect;
and in the impressive sports and culture centre; and in the abundance of natural light the
overall design brings in.

Despite its thick concrete walls and 300 surveillance cameras, the whole complex is
envisioned as a ‘village’. Though the layout takes its cue from the traditional panopticon idea
of cells surrounding a central staff observation base, this has been dramatically
modernised. In the middle of Storstrøm lies the main administration centre (also shared in
part by inmates) and an ‘activity house’ — a circular building home to a church, multifaith
prayer room, library, music room, healthcare unit, sports hall and ‘supermarket’. These
buildings form the central hub, set in open, landscaped, communal space. From here,
‘streets’ fan out to the accommodation wards, of which there are five. Beyond, there is a
seven-a-side football pitch and running track.
With the sharp slopes of some rooflines and jagged articulations of ward floorplans, there is
a geometry in the composition that brings an aesthetic liveliness and variety to disrupt
potential monotony. Facade materials alternate between light-coloured brick and a
combination of concrete and galvanised steel. The activity house has concrete and glass
exterior panelling. One of the wards is protected by its own additional perimeter wall — as it
is the highest-security ward within the maximum-security prison — but the other four are
laid out identically to one another.

They accommodate four housing units each, with each unit containing four to seven cells
arranged along a corridor, attached to a kitchen (where inmates cook their own food),
outdoor smoking terrace, fitness room and indoor communal area (hosting ping pong tables
or sofas). Each of these housing units is visually marked out by a different bold colour —
orange, blue, yellow, green — which saturates the space (perhaps too much at times: the
orange unit feels uneasy and overwhelming).
Each cell includes an en-suite bathroom clad in blue ceramic tiles.

Each 13 sq m cell (there are 250 in total) looks like a bedroom plucked from an IKEA
catalogue. It contains a black sofa bed, mini fridge, flat-screen TV, desk, reading lamps,
shelving and cupboards. There’s an en-suite bathroom, clad completely in blue ceramic tiles.
Most strikingly, there is a large, 3.1m-high, barless window overlooking the bed, flooding the
room with natural light — identified as vital for wellbeing.
As well as giving the inmate views of the green landscaped area outside, it means they can
lie in bed and look out at the expanse of the sky, rather than feeling visually cut off from the
natural world. It is this cell design that project architect Mads Mandrup Hansen suggests he
is most proud of: ‘We have really managed to ensure maximum quality of life in just a few
square metres. I dare to claim that our focus on optimising daylight, space and security
through architecture has already set a new standard for prison-cell design.’

The sleek and bright cell design includes a 3.1m-tall barless window and an en-suite bathroom clad in blue
ceramic tiles.
The rest of the ward is taken up by staff facilities, a walled outdoor recreation space, and
workshops. The outdoor recreation area is landscaped, with sports equipment, seating,
greenery and a sheltered area. The workshops, however, steal the show. Two large concrete
spaces — one bigger than the other with a lofty sloped ceiling — they are the sorts of spaces
that artists and makers yearn for. While the raw concrete gives an industrial feel, the prison
will invite inmates to paint the walls if they wish — and even create murals. Welding and
carpentry will also take place in these workshops, including the production of furniture to be
used across Danish prisons.

It is in these spaces that many of the inmates will spend what is essentially a working day.
Inmates must be ‘occupied’ for 37 hours a week; for this they receive wages (including sick
pay). While the majority of this occupation is based around the workshop, alternative
accepted activities include education and rehabilitative treatment programmes. As far as
possible, inmates undertake skills-building activities to help them qualify for work after
being released, whether that be carpentry and welding, or food preparation (some inmates
are employed to work in the kitchen that prepares food for the staff restaurant).

A recreation yard in one of the accommodation wards, including sports facilities, greenery and seating.

In addition to this there is of course leisure time, much of which will be spent in the aptly
named ‘activity house’, which feels like a sports and culture building you might find at a
high-end secondary school. In spaces such as the music room (‘for band practice’, the
governor says) and the multifaith prayer room, ceilings are impressively high, with full-
length windows (facing towards Mecca in the prayer room). Elegant pendant lamps provide
softly glowing, not brash, illumination.

The church — envisioned as an entire community hub with an entrance space for
gatherings, harnesses an abundance of oak, along with brass detailing, to create an area of
warmth, beauty and calm bathed in natural light. The multifunctional sports hall is huge at
660 sq m. Across the length of one wall is one of the prison’s two commissioned artworks: a
gigantic seascape painting by John Kørner (‘the biggest painting in Europe’, says the
governor).

The church (above) and multi-functional sports hall (below), both in the activity house.

In fact, the Danish government stipulates that 1.5% of the building costs of any public
project should be set aside for art — even in prisons such as this. In addition to the Kørner
painting, there is a patinated bronze sculpture group by Claus Carstensen. Located in the
central courtyard near the gateway building (the prison entrance), it depicts a life-size group
of five men standing around, seemingly aimlessly. Time will tell how the prisoners will
interact with these bronze men.
Nearby is the main administration centre, in the middle of the complex. Inside, corridors
with pitched ceilings — with a repetitive, almost zig-zag, form — contain skylights that allow
powerful shafts of daylight into the space. There is a peaceful courtyard garden, accessible
to both staff and inmates, which feels inspired both by traditional Japanese garden design
and Peter Zumthor’s raw minimalism. The hue of concrete and sheen of galvanised steel
interact with the gentle shimmer of leaves on the young trees within.

An enclosed garden set within the main administration building, accessible by both staff and inmates.

The facade of the administration building features a pattern relief of repeated circles,
reminiscent of bubbles. This design was created by sub-contracted practice Aggebo &
Henriksen Design (also responsible for the block colour usage in the housing units); this
circle-based pattern is also found on the walls of the outdoor recreation spaces in the
maximum security ward, adding a flourish of decoration.

This motif of repeated circles was also picked up by the project’s landscape architect,
Marianne Levinsen, with bubble-like circular mounds of grass in the outdoor landscaped
area surrounding the activity house, which she describes as the ‘village public square’. In
addition to these grassy mounds there are benches and trees to create, as Levinsen
explains, a ‘more humane environment’.
Aggebo & Henriksen Design provided additional design flourishes such as the bubble-like facade detailing.

Levinsen, who worked closely alongside CF Møller, also inroduced small lawns up against
the building facades to maintain privacy and worked to make the inner recreation areas as
green as possible in order to enhance wellbeing. She introduced a kitchen garden, where
inmates can grow their own vegetables to cook, and a garden attached to the church
created as ‘an inviting space for contemplation and reflection’.

Levinsen designed the communal outdoor walking surfaces — the area around the activity
house and the ‘streets’ to the wards — with stripes of red, black and white granite gravel,
enhancing the complex’s visual variety. ‘The entire landscape inside the prison wall has been
designed with the purpose of creating a visually varied and aesthetically stimulating
environment,’ says Levinsen. ‘The striped streetscape pattern strengthens the spatial
perspectives and movements between the buildings. This creates a visual dynamic, to
compensate for the enclosed space and lack of natural horizon.’
One of the project’s major architectural challenges is for the high-security prison, which can
accommodate around 250 inmates, to be less institutionalised.

The overall architectural approach is to create a building on the same scale and with the same
structure as, including streets and squares. This will ensure a familiar and varied experience of
the prison environment and keep the prison’s institutional atmosphere to a minimum. The
townlike structure also resembles the surrounding villages, and is thus a natural element of
the landscape.

The cells are gathered in units comprising four to seven cells, placed around a social hub. The
units have access to a living room area and a shared kitchen, where the inmates prepare their
own meals. The living room areas are decorated in colours which are less institutional, just as
structurally-integrated art and artworks created especially for the prison can be found
throughout the prison.

Daylight is important for people’s well-being and each cell has daylight flowing in from
two windows, from where the inmates also have views of the surrounding landscape
and the sky. Physical activity is also important for the inmates’ mental social welfare,
and both indoors and outdoors, there are opportunities for sport, games and physical
exercise.
The activity house set in the prison’s central outdoor communal space, the 'village square'.

Levinsen faced her fair share of challenges: not only did her design have to adhere to the
prison’s restrictions — an original lake and group of trees were removed for security
reasons; an apple orchard was scrapped due to financial limitations — but she also had to
deal with the exceptionally wet ground on the low-lying island.

A visitor centre, located between the ‘village hub’ and the gateway building, is specifically
designed to help support the inmates’ relationships with their families. There are individual
visiting rooms each with an en-suite bathroom and small outside area, as well as a family
common room — containing bamboo seating and shelving, packed with children’s toys —
and an impressive outdoor playground. Most surprisingly, however, are the three visitor
flats.
The visitor centre includes meeting rooms and apartments as well as indoor and outdoor play spaces for inmates’
children.

These have been created so that prisoners can enjoy weekend-long visits from their
families. From Friday evening to Sunday night, they are able to move into one of these two-
bedroom, one-kitchen, one-bathroom, fully fitted-out flats — decorated quite literally with
furniture from IKEA, as well as pot plants, picture frames and children’s toys — in order to
spend quality family time together in as normal a setting as possible. There is even a small
landscaped garden — it feels like an actual home.

Wandering around the well-equipped, beautifully designed spaces — the kind of

environment many people in social housing don’t even have — it is hard not to wonder
about the inherent contradiction between ‘wellbeing’ and ‘punishment’. Sten Osenfeld from
Alex Poulsen Arkitekter, project manager for the Danish Prison and Probation Service on
Storstrøm, reflects on this before replying. ‘In Denmark, punishment is not about the place,’
he explains. ‘It is about the lack of freedom.’ What’s more, the policy of the Danish Prison
and Probation Service, in the overall aim to reduce criminality, is to motivate offenders to
become law-abiding citizens, rather than punish them for not being so.
The multifaith prayer room, which is intended to function as the prison’s mosque, is orientated towards Mecca.

‘We want to make the environment as similar to the outside world as possible,’ explains
Osenfeld, ‘to make the return to normal life easy to process.’ There is a focus on the inmates
being largely self-sufficient: they use the wages they earn to buy food and items from the
supermarket, which they then cook themselves. They also do their own washing up and
laundry, embedding a sense of responsibility and normality.

CF Møller, for its vision, has interpreted this approach as ‘architecture that stimulates
inmates’ desire and capacity to rejoin society after serving a prison sentence.’ In this way it is
a form of rehabilitative architecture more commonly associated with hospitals and
treatment centres. The architects describe the strong focus on integrating ‘stimulating and
healing aspects’ as the belief that this kind of setting can have a beneficial effect on the
rehabilitative task of the prison.
Angled roof lines and the striped ‘streetscape’ aims to provide visual variety.

‘We see rehabilitative architecture as a set of tools, where architecture with all its
soft qualities comes into play, maximising the quality of the spaces we create,’ project
architect Hansen explains. ‘It’s about providing a certain harmony between
landscape, light, colour, space and materials, ensuring a certain quality of life.
Rehabilitative architecture is where you crack open the human dimension of a
project. It is where destination architecture takes a hike and phenomenological
experience of built space takes over. Without quality architecture you lose the ability
to rehabilitate.’

This is CF Møller’s first prison project, but working on similarly rehabilitative

architecture such as hospitals informed many of its design decisions. ‘We applied
evidence-based features that we had implemented with some success in other
projects,’ adds Hansen, ‘with the clear objective of creating a positive impact on the
static confinement of the prisoners.’

Hansen sees the design as a hybrid of best practice balanced with a desire to improve
prison life. ‘It is based on a strong analysis of what is already out there,’ he says, ‘with
the clear objective to make our version just that bit better. You could say we
humanised the panopticon through social sustainability.’
PRISON ARCHITECTURE

Prisons have been replaced by “correctional facilities” and “detention centres.”

Whatever language we use, incarceration has grown into a huge industry that
supports the banking, legal, food service, and telecommunications industries, as
well as architects, designers, and contractors.

However, while architects and psychologists have spent a lot of time thinking about
how to make better prisons, the truth is that incarcerating people, safeguarding
them from themselves and each other, and safely transferring them around presents
a vast set of logistical issues.

The Architectural Review

Prison design is not a glamourous topic of study. It will never make you a
household name, and inflexible security standards and budget constraints will
permanently suffocate your creative thought. It might also be debatable.

Design, of course, can remedy many of these problems, but regrettably, too
frequently those who commission prisons—from counties to towns to states to the
private prison industry—are more focused on money, security, and expediency
than humanity, never mind excellent design.

Prison design

Photo from Monolithic Dome Institute

Prison design is not a glamourous topic of study. It will never make you a
household name, and inflexible security standards and budget constraints will
permanently suffocate your creative thought. Typically, we conceive of
architectural laws as being in place to ensure that public buildings are safe. But
what if the damage to a structure is caused by the building working exactly as
expected rather than by unforeseen structural failure?

Photo from Monolithic Dome Institute

Is it possible for a structure built to promote human rights violations to be
considered a violation in and of itself? And what exactly is the role of the
architects involved? These are the questions at the heart of the ongoing discussion
in the United States about the role of architects in prison design.

Geometrical formation

Radial Type
The cell blocks in the radial configuration are placed as if they were individual
spokes of a wheel. While not as comprehensive as the Panopticon, all cell blocks
are connected to a central control area, which allows for complete control of all
communication between persons in the various cell blocks. Many times, a square
or rectangular exterior wall is used to enclose a completely radial construction of
cell blocks.

Telephone-pole Type

The telephone-pole formation is made up of a succession of lateral type cell houses

connected by a long corridor that runs from an administration building nearby and
cuts the distinct cell blocks at right angles. The corridor runs perpendicular to each
of the individual cell blocks and connects each of the cell houses to the
administration building in this plan type.

This configuration provides for different levels of protection for each cell block.
Individual lateral cell houses, for example, can be regulated by a separate security
form, such as leniency or strictness. This security forms have specific impacts and
do not affect the other individual call block governments.

Cruciform’s Type

Two perpendicularly intersecting wings make up this style. A corridor separates

the lines on every four wings generated by perpendicularly crossed wings in this
plan type. Later, additions might be used to enlarge the wings.
Three wings are set aside for cells in some cruciform buildings, while one wing is
set up for administration offices and prisoner communal rooms. Ipswich Prison
(1784-1790) and Bullingdon Prison (1991) are two examples. Although both
structures feature cruciform construction, their uses and interpretations of space are
vastly different.

Squares Type

The basic shape of these prisons is square. This type can be used in a variety of
ways. For example, the Ventura County Jail was constructed using a plan type of
new generation architecture, yet the room is square.

Hollow Square Type (Courtyards)

Photo from Good Book of Prisons

There is an inner courtyard in this plan style. Prisoners’ cells or dormitories are
arranged around the courtyard. Newgate Prison, 1770–1785, Low Newton 1078, as
an example. Both buildings have courtyards on the inside, but the spaces are used
differently. Dormitories around the courtyard in Newgate, one of the first examples
of inner courtyard prisons, have only visual contact in the horizontal axis with each
other and no other connection.

Panoptical Type
The Panopticon was designed in a circular shape with individual cells on the
outside. A small window in the back of the cell would allow in light to illuminate
the contents, while solid walls between the cells would prevent any communication
between inmates. Custodians who built an observation tower in the centre of the
ring cells could look into all the cells that were arranged in a round pattern around
it, like spokes on a wheel.

The basic idea was that having the cells visible would make it easier for guards to
control and keep an eye on the inmates at all times. This location, which could see
everything, was created to ensure that every prisoner was under constant
surveillance.
Triangular Type

The Architectural Review

Direct supervision and control were key to the new generation design idea. This
new type of jail design placed prisoners and authorities closer together than ever
before. Although inmates were given more freedom of movement, staff were able
to keep a closer eye on them. This environment facilitated personal relationships in
a more casual setting.

Long hallways were avoided in favour of small groups of cells arranged in two
levels around a huge room in the typical design that existed before the new
generation design. As a result, inmates and prison guards mixed. To put it another
way, this technology was employed to provide indirect supervision.

Spatial Features
The contemporary prison’s spatial concept and design should send a message to
those who enter it, namely, that they are valuable individuals who are entitled to
respectful and humane treatment, as well as a message to those who work there,
namely, that the people they are guarding are fellow human beings. The jail
format, with its basic characteristics of size, layout, and volume, plays a critical
role in establishing a socially effective setting.
Layout

The layout is a direct function of producing a functional spatial and social

environment, while also allowing for the efficient application of safety, security,
and surveillance systems, whereas the purpose of “punishing” through form has
lost its significance in contemporary design.

Volume and form

Volume distribution, form, and materialisation alter convicts’ perceptions, generate

analogies with external created entities, and allow for better interaction among
diverse prison components. As one of the two essential psychological stages,
inmates’ well-being and perception are influenced by daylight, colours, flexibility,
and openness.

Outdoor space

Equipment, size, and materialisation of outdoor prison spaces form the image
which inmates compare with the motifs existing in the external environment.
Landscape design should be based on the measures to draw the surroundings into
prison space and to draw the vegetation into the prison interior, with the common
goal to raise the awareness and enhance the sense of belonging to the outside
world.