The Visual Aesthetics and Anaesthetics of Prison Architecture and Design

• In Event: Visual Criminology and the Penal Spectacle

Abstract

Public opinion about what a prison should look like may be complex and conflicted, with tensions surfacing between a desire to make prisons look like places of punishment and a more self-interested requirement for them to blend unobtrusively into their surroundings. Bland, functional, sometimes austere, the visual aesthetics of new prisons usually aim to communicate authority, efficiency and, above all, security, but do not possess qualities that might be interpreted as human(e), far less enriching or beautiful. This paper discusses the extent to which aesthetic considerations and ‘good’ design in the carceral environment affect wellbeing, quality of life and potential for rehabilitation. Conversely, do symbolic manifestations of punitive punishment in prison design deepen prisoners' sense of being in penal Hell?

Author

• Yvonne Jewkes, University of Leicester, UK