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| Death row cell, Polunsky Unit, Texas |
The
Quakers were among the first Americans to devise the idea of solitary confinement based on the notion that a life of quiet contemplation was the best way to help people improve their moral character. Inmates went through meals and work in complete silence, with only the Bible to feed their thoughts. The word "penitentiary" comes from the root of the word "penance," reflecting the original attitude that isolation was a way to rehabilitate.
Today, thanks to modern technology, entire super-maximum security prisons are built where human contact is strictly limited and the idea of rehabilitation is almost entirely absent. The use of solitary confinement has become a topic of humanitarian concern, with both the
United Nations and
Amnesty International condemning America's reliance on the practice, which violates international human rights norms and, they argue, constitutes torture.
Psychologists agree that even just a few days in solitary can lead to an array of health and psychological problems, but America's prisons, under the guise of security and safety concerns, continue to isolate and punish people in ways that much of the rest of the world considers barbaric.
This is exactly what Raphael Sperry, president of
Architects/ Designers/ Planners for Social Responsibility wants to emphasize in his new movement to urge the American Institute of Architects to prohibit architects from designing spaces designed for solitary confinement as well as execution chambers.
Sperry's proposed regulation doesn't prohibit the design of all prisons, just ones that violate human rights. But is there even such a thing as a well-designed prison?
Architect Glen Stantaya has
designed what he calls a "
PriSchool," described on his website as a "prison + school" hybrid to allow non-violent inmates access to rehabilitative programs and otherwise encourage the kind of behavior that will prevent them from returning to prison again. Sperry
points to Scandinavian countries, where guards and inmates eat side-by-side. The expectation, he says, is that prisons are part of the community — the inmates could be you or me. While he doesn't seem overly optimistic that such prisons will be built in the U.S. anytime soon, Sperry does think that by encouraging architects to think about the ethical meaning of the spaces they are building, they will be forced to become more creative and have an impetus to solve the problem of how to care for the nation's convicted offenders in a more humane way.
Source: The Week, Jessica Pishko, January 4, 2015
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