Different approaches to crime and criminals also reveal different justice systems and the public’s beliefs about punishment. The justice system in the United States has a largely negative reputation and is often criticized both within and outside of the country, while Scandinavia is internationally known to have one of the most humane prison systems. Exploring the two extremes of Scandinavian and American approaches to prison design -- to determine how the differences affect the inmates and the overall effectiveness of the prison system -- illustrates the importance of considering the human experience in the design of these buildings.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF MODERN PRISON DESIGN A criminal-reformation line of thought in the early modern period instigated the creation of new types of buildings for imprisonment as punishment.6 The Enlightenment philosophy advocated solitary confinement as a way to give prisoners time to reflect and repent.7 Over time, prisons took distinct forms meant to solve the problems and behavior of the inmates, signaling the beginning of self-conscious prison architecture.8 In the late eighteenth century, Jeremy Bentham devised his revolutionary scheme for an “all-seeing” Panopticon prison. It was a prison with a centralized configuration around a guard tower from which a supervisor could maintain constant surveillance of all prisoners while himself being shielded by a beam of directional light. Bentham’s Panopticon has inspired considerable theory as well as physical solutions for prison architecture with centralized planning.9 At the beginning of the nineteenth century in the United States, two penal systems existed; the penitentiary, focused on the idea of penitence, was one approach and the other was imprisonment as punishment instead of as a chance for reformation.10 The so-called Pennsylvania System was epitomized in Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary, the first facility where the penitentiary philosophy was put into practice.11 The design recalled the Panopticon in its centralized configuration. Unlike in earlier American prisons, at Eastern State almost complete solitude was to be maintained day and night. The reformers believed that if punishment and reform took place in solitude, the problems such as physical violence and collusion between prisoners, security problems, and unhealthy conditions, which were all common to other prisons, could not occur.12 Influenced by Quaker philosophy and the idea of penitence, solitude was thought to serve as punishment as well as to give time for reflection and contrition.13 The Auburn System, named after Auburn Prison in New York, emphasized the imprisonment itself as punishment. Auburn Prison immediately encountered multiple problems concerning the living conditions of the cells, in which the most serious offenders spent their entire sentence. The prison became known for inadequate heating, dampness, rodents, and a high level of insanity and illness among the prisoners confined to the tiny spaces (seven feet six inches by three feet eight inches and seven feet high).14 Eventually those involved in the design and running of the prison devised a solution that allowed inmates to spend some time outside of their cells; inmates would work together silently during the day under a strict schedule and be confined to cells only during the night. This system, which was adopted by all states except Pennsylvania, has been described as “machinelike” with the goal of keeping prisoners under “complete, demeaning control at all times,”15 ensuring that imprisonment itself was a severely punishing experience. Although Eastern State took design inspiration from Bentham’s Panopticon,