Panopticon. (Photo: Public Domain)

More open layouts can improve inmate-guard relations and support a culture of progress rather than fear.

Like most other total institutions, prisons are colored by the interactions occupants share with their bureaucratic overlords.

Previous research has suggested that when these relationships buckle amid the drudgery of isolation or the annoyance of constant surveillance, tensions can increase “psychological distress” among inmates. When the relationships are strong, though, they can translate to “less prisoner misconduct” and “less mental health problems,” according to Karin Beijersbergen, a researcher at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement. “In other words, good staff-prisoner relationships are important for the manageability and safety in prisons,” Beijersbergen told Pacific Standard in an email.

Though many scholars focusing on penitentiaries suspect that staff-prisoner relations are molded by institutional architecture, little empirical work has been completed on the topic. Now, a new study led by Beijersbergen and published in Crime & Delinquency has concluded that building styles, floor plans, and other design features do indeed have a significant impact on the way Dutch prisoners perceive their relationships with prison staff.

Beijersbergen and her team visited prisons across the country, making notes of their architectural style, age of construction, and other design features, like unit sizes and numbers of double bunk cells. Then they compared that data to results of national inmate surveys.....Continue Reading

> via psmag.com