![]() The prison’s layout also encourages guards to interact with inmates face to face, which fosters better relationships and reduces security-related incidents. Halden’s design style is expensive - which is why we mostly see it implemented in places with good social support systems, like Western Europe and Scandinavia. Still, the design is setting new standards for what prisons could be like in the future. You can find this video and all of Vox’s videos on YouTube. And if you’re interested in supporting our video journalism, you can become a member of the Vox Video Lab on YouTube.Prison design is a controversial topic in the field of architecture. The “all-seeing” Panopticon prison of the eighteenth century introduced by British social reformer Jeremy Bentham brought academic attention to the issue of prison design. Two centuries later, French philosopher and social theorist Michel Foucault used the Panopticon as a metaphor for society and its power to control beyond the physical. The Pennsylvania penitentiary system was influenced by the idea of penitence solitude was thought to serve as punishment as well as giving time for reflection and contrition.Īt the beginning of the nineteenth century in the United States there existed two competing penal and prison “systems” - the Pennsylvania System and the Auburn System. ![]() The prison designs often recalled the Panopticon with centralized configurations. The opposing system was known as the Auburn System, after the eponymous facility in New York, where imprisonment was punishment instead of a chance for reformation. It was at Auburn where the core idea of Bentham’s Panopticon, total surveillance, became a reality. The Auburn system and corresponding architecture have been described as “machine-like” where prisoners are kept in tiny cells (seven feet six inches by three feet eight inches and seven feet high) under “complete, demeaning control at all times.” The Auburn System has predominated prison design and theory in the United States. In American society today some resist involving architects in creating prison facilities. “Architecture” for these buildings is discouraged. In 2013, Pelican Bay supermax prison, with its “8×10-foot, soundproof, poured-concrete cells with remote controlled doors and no windows,” inspired hunger strikes across California in solidarity for the appalling living conditions. Simultaneously, a petition to the American Institute of Architects attempted to forbid architects from creating prisons. Why would an architect create a space that has such negative effects on human life and morale? Yet, what these events prove is that there is a dire need in places like Pelican Bay for the touch of an architect. The environments in American prisons create opportunities for violence, tension, and hostility in inmates. Even employees in American prisons have been found to have a higher risk of various stress-related health issues. Trained architects could solve the design-driven problems.Different justice systems create distinct prison environments. ![]()
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