How Architecture Can Shape Environments that Influence Behaviors Project of a Prison in the Arizona Desert

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Is there such a thing as a perfect prison? Is it possible, even in theory, to satisfy needs as potentially contrasting as those of inmates, victims and society? Why aren’t prisons working, and what could be done to lower recidivism numbers? The built environment can have significant impact on its inhabitants, so how can architecture be used to solve the problem?

A central flaw with incarceration is the high rates of recidivism – that a large number of released prisoners relapse into crime and soon end up behind bars again. The numbers vary from country to country, but the Bureau of Justice Statistics in United States reports that one third of all inmates released from US prisons in 2005 were arrested again within a year. In total, more than 75% of those released were arrested again within five years.

The goal of Prison Puzzle is to design a medium-security prison complex with a capacity of 500 inmates, located in the desert of Arizona, United States. The concept includes recidivism and how it can be reduced, at the same time considering the different interests and requirements found in inmates, victims as well as society as a whole.
United States is an interesting example as it is home to less than 5% of the world’s population, but houses around 25% of its prisoners. Tougher laws adopted in the 1980’s has resulted in a proportionally large prison population, creating a downward spiral of overcrowded prisons with poor living conditions and little opportunity for rehabilitation. This in turn leads to high rates of recidivism, further burdening an already strained system.
While many US states have started taking measures to reduce incarceration numbers, prisons themselves could play an important role in helping inmates abide the law once released.

The site is located in Arizona, a state where the number of inmates per resident is far above the US average. Over recent years, changes in laws and policies have played a part in the reduction of incarcerated people in some states, like NewYork and California. Elsewhere, the numbers have been growing almost uninterruptedly for decades. Persistently high numbers of inmates and a limited notion of change make Arizona an ideal location for a progressive prison.
The site for Prison Puzzle is a large area of land along US Route 160, located in the desert near the Utah border in northern Arizona.

Studies on this subject includes: The form and the content. This is architecture. Spaces and forms affect human existence, on social intelligence., on the psyche, on common decency and on the daily interaction of each citizen with the outside world, with each other, with himself. Therefore, the train of thought, highlighted along the text, follows this ambitious trace for the entire analysis path, up to show how much and how aesthetics is inextricably linked to ethics. It’s an old subject, of course, but this time shall be made even more concrete by the need to fall it in the complex reality represented by the penitentiary world and its entire prison community.