Health and Well-Being in Prison Design: A Theory of Prison Systems and a Framework for Evolution

This book establishes a new framework for prison design to promote the health and well-being of all prison users. Based on international research in Norway, Finland, the USA, and Chile, and drawing on the expertise of key international advisors, this book uniquely reveals the perspectives of both designers and prison authorities concerning well-being in prison architecture. It is the first book to compare perspectives between prison models while providing essential guidance for the design of prison environments to promote the rehabilitation of inmates and their desistance from crime.

The promotion of health and well-being of people in prison is vital to enable rehabilitation. Traditional prison architecture severely weakens both rehabilitation efforts and opportunities for desistance. Only a handful of prison systems in the world have shown significant changes in their prison designs. Underpinned by Critical Realism and the PERMA theory of well-being, this book reveals significant new insights to inform prison design. The author presents international case study research with interviews with prison authorities and designers from four countries and the three different prison models, as well as key international United Nations advisors. For the first time the visions of prison designers are contrasted with those of prison authorities, bringing a new synthesised understanding of the differences and similarities in their approach to the health and well-being of both inmates and staff from which to generate a new framework for design considerations.

This book illuminates new directions for prison design and is essential reading for policymakers, academics, and students involved in the study and development of criminology, corrections, and penology. It is also an indispensable source of up-to-date knowledge for prison authorities, public health officials, architects, and designers involved in the design of prisons and any other type of coercive detention facilities.

Alberto Urrutia-Moldes holds a PhD in prison architecture from the University of Sheffield in the UK. He also has a BSc in Industrial Engineering (2008) and a BSc in Construction Management (1993) both from the University of Bío-Bío in Chile. After graduating as Construction manager, he started working in the construction industry for private companies until 1998, when he was appointed head of the regional office of infrastructure at the Bío-Bío regional directorate of the Chilean prison service in the city of Concepción. In this capacity, Alberto was responsible for addressing the needs of the 24 prison and parole facilities across 14 cities in the Bío-Bío region. He was later appointed as head of the projects and planning office at the same regional directorate. In parallel to his job in the Chilean prison service, he worked since 2006 as a part-time Lecturer in construction management at the School of Construction Engineering at the University of Bío-Bío. In 2012 he co-organised -with the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Bío-Bío-- the first conference in prison architecture held in Chile, and then co-edited the book 1st Seminar of Prison Architecture for Social Reinsertion, which contains the main presentations of the 2 days conference. In 2014 he moved to the UK, where he started his PhD program, being awarded a Doctoral degree in March 2020.