Scandinavia’s justice system allows the opportunity for an “open prison,” which emphasizes reintegration rather than punishment.

and Scandinavia suggest that the Scandinavian approach is better.

Comparison of the history and theory of prison design, media portrayals, and prison inmates’ experiences in the U.S. Trained architects could solve the design-driven problems.Different justice systems create distinct prison environments. Even employees in American prisons have been found to have a higher risk of various stress-related health issues. The environments in American prisons create opportunities for violence, tension, and hostility in inmates. Why would an architect create a space that has such negative effects on human life and morale? Yet, what these events prove is that there is a dire need in places like Pelican Bay for the touch of an architect. Simultaneously, a petition to the American Institute of Architects attempted to forbid architects from creating prisons.

In 2013, Pelican Bay supermax prison, with its “8×10-foot, soundproof, poured-concrete cells with remote controlled doors and no windows,” inspired hunger strikes across California in solidarity for the appalling living conditions. “Architecture” for these buildings is discouraged. In American society today some resist involving architects in creating prison facilities. The Auburn system and corresponding architecture have been described as “machine-like” where prisoners are kept in tiny cells (seven feet six inches by three feet eight inches and seven feet high) under “complete, demeaning control at all times.” The Auburn System has predominated prison design and theory in the United States. It was at Auburn where the core idea of Bentham’s Panopticon, total surveillance, became a reality. The opposing system was known as the Auburn System, after the eponymous facility in New York, where imprisonment was punishment instead of a chance for reformation. The prison designs often recalled the Panopticon with centralized configurations. The Pennsylvania penitentiary system was influenced by the idea of penitence solitude was thought to serve as punishment as well as giving time for reflection and contrition. At the beginning of the nineteenth century in the United States there existed two competing penal and prison “systems” - the Pennsylvania System and the Auburn System. Two centuries later, French philosopher and social theorist Michel Foucault used the Panopticon as a metaphor for society and its power to control beyond the physical. The “all-seeing” Panopticon prison of the eighteenth century introduced by British social reformer Jeremy Bentham brought academic attention to the issue of prison design. Prison design is a controversial topic in the field of architecture.

Prison architect design