In America the concept of how prisons should work and how they are designed has greatly been overlooked, and hardly changed. Glen Santayana took a vastly different look at how a mixture between architecture, urban planning, and a radically different approach in how we treat non-violent offenders for his PriSchool prison design. Glen takes the idea of a prison as an institution of punishment, and flips it to a place of reform and education. The title is a cheeky play on words, however if we are about to pay for these inmates to sit in prison, why not educate them beyond right from wrong. Check it out after the jump and make sure to check out Glen Santayana full thesis book at the end!
STUDENT: Glen Santayana
SCHOOL: Harvard GSD
PROFESSORS: John Hong + Jinhee Park
COURSE: Spring Thesis
YEAR: 2013
PriSchool: A Prison + School Hybrid
“The thesis looks to address the outflow of prisoners and combat the challenges of recidivism. This is done through the implementation of a new typology of prison facility that symbiotically merges the program of incarceration and education. The prison would be a prison for non-violent drug offenders.
The school would be a school of criminology and criminal justice, and it will have a variety of traditional and non-traditional learning environments in which the inmate-student interaction is facilitated and encouraged.
The inmates will gain new practical skills and intellectual capacities that will facilitate their transition back into society. In addition, the mental and cognitive stimulation will allow former prisoners to gain a sense of confidence and dignity that may have been suppressed during incarceration.
Rather than regarding prisons simply as a means of punishment that might ensure ex-convicts have no other future, this new system of higher education incarceration will promote rehabilitation and the creation of new productive members of society.”
– Glen Santayana
Check out the rest of the project at:
http://glensantayana.com/PriSchool-A-Prison-School-Hybrid
FUTURES+ Original Post