Building Hope: The possibility of trauma-informed architecture in a residential alternative to custody for women

• In Event: Novel approaches to community sanctions and sentencing

Abstract

Hope Street is a purpose-built residential community for women and children impacted by the criminal legal system. It represents a radical rethinking of how the justice system understands offending by women and their gendered experiences within its existing structures. Hope Street has been designed and built according to principles of trauma-informed practice. It is a space that intentionally attempts to use the built environment as a tool for supporting women to heal from some of the traumatic experiences common in their pathways to crime. Rather than tinkering with the existing system, Hope Street seeks to build something new, collaboratively with justice-involved women, that has the potential to offer a viable, effective alternative to custody for women.

Our paper reports on the early stages of a post-occupancy evaluation of Hope Street. Using photovoice and emotion mapping activities, this research is exploring with the women living and staff working at Hope Street the extent it succeeds as a trauma-informed space.

Authors

• Madeline Petrillo, University of Greenwich

• Alexandra Fanghanel, Greenwich University