Is There Anything Like Humane Jail Design: Whether the Changes in Design Will Prove Beneficial or Injurious to Society?

Introduction

On a summer day of May 9, 2019, Prof Keshav, professor of School of Architecture & Planning, Babu Banarasi Das University (BBDU) and retired senior architect of Uttar Pradesh Rashtriya Nirmaan Nigam (UPRNN), was one of the panelists in the Bachelor of Architecture final year thesis jury, where a final year student was continuously advocating about his aspirations to make a livable jail while designing a District jail. All the jury members were adamant that what new he would be able to do as jail design is a rigid concept following only security norms. Listening to all the conversations Professor Keshav suddenly went back to the year 1999 when he was practically presenting jail designs of various jails like Siddhartha Nagar, Kanpur Dehat followed by Bagpat, Maharajganj and Sonbhadra. He visited many prisons in the country including Tihar for case study and found that their condition needed consideration again. He advocated the use of well-thought-out architectural strategies as a tool to influence the psyche of prison inmates. He worked and reworked spatial design so that prisoners get humanitarian conditions to survive in confinement and follow all the mandatory norms at the same time.

He always believed that architecture could influence its user’s psychology. He designed and consistently worked on the designs with discussions with industry experts, police officials, and jail inmates. He wanted to propose a design that was very sound about the security strengthened with monitoring tools and at the same time very user friendly. He believed this type of design would change the thought process of prisoners positively.

Judicial System of India

The study can be discussed as reformative architecture where the criminals are also treated as humans and are not defied of the basic amenities of sanitation and clean drinking water. They should also be allowed to have a social life in their confinement. In prison security, circulation is one of the most crucial parameters so Prof Keshav had to face many refusals and he reworked again and again.

To understand Prof Keshav’s concept for reforming the spatial design, understanding the judicial system of India becomes imperative.

The judicial system of India happens to be the oldest (Dhavan, 2014). In 1835, Lord Macaulay, a member of the Indian Law Commission, was the first to introduce prison reform in India. The nation's prison system was governed under the Indian Prisons Act of 1894. India had 68 mixed, 75 criminal, and 43 civil jails at that time. District Magistrates were in charge of these jails. (Odhisha).

The judicial system of India consists of three departments:

a. Law courts, 

b. Police department and 

c. Prison (Fig 1)

The above figures show that the prison population in India is least but there seems to be a gap in formulation of solution to the problems that prisoners face in the prison is also because of the large population. This also reflects back to the scenario that why most of the prisoners in India are not convicted and are merely on trial.

As per prison population of India Justice Report prison population increase 1.5% every year and has increased from 4, 81,387 to 4, 88,510 in the year 2020. (Mohan, 2018). Undoubtedly work has been done for the betterment of inmates as Prof Keshav agrees that previous prison mandates were to penalize the prisoner brutally but now reforms are welcomed and implied beginning with the change in name of “Jail Department” to Jail Administration and reform services”.

The analysis of all the above factors renders information about the various issues like staff to prisoner ratio as given below:

Due to strict mandates the spatial planning of the prison becomes highly monotonous and leads to mental depression and hopelessness. As per the reports every year two inmates commit suicide in Tihar Jail. Prof Keshav believes that human design can motivate the prisoners towards hope and so decided to formulate a design proposal on the same incorporating all Hi-Tech mechanism installed in the built form itself. He was assured that this was a tough task but not an impossible one. So he requested the authorities and visited Tehri Jail, Shimla, Tihar Jail, Kanpur nagar jail and there interacted with superintendents, jailors and even the prisoners. He realized it was entirely a different world inside the huge, brutal walls, blank corridors.

According to Professor Keshav: “Architecture has the capacity to invoke emotions. Architecture of happiness will surely result in inducing positive mindset in inmates.”

An overview of Jail evolution and architectural development

The custom of imprisonment is, as old as the civilizations whether it was Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Greek or Roman, to detain the people who were potential threat to the society. It was featured as a correctional facility or a temporary stay of criminals. It wasn’t until after the 12th century that the prison actually became a form of architecture. Prison architecture started as chambers inside massive brick towers in castles, which were often lightless with only an air shaft and a toilet shaft. These prisons were far from being hygienic; insects and rats were very common. However, unlike our centralized mega-prisons today, the prisons at that time were small in scale. Since the length of imprisonment was relatively short and the number of prisoners remained small, the foul conditions of prisons did not rise to attention.

Bentham was the first one to propose the concept in Prison design where only few guards were required to check the maximum number of prisoners. The concept was called “Panopticon”. (Sheridan, 2016).The design was also followed in the New Delhi prison in 1817.

"Habits of Industry” Theory - This theory propagated around 16th century when there was social unrest. Prisons were now planned near the warehouses in the attempt to rehabilitate petty offenders. From there, a new purpose was given to prison through rebuilding new way of life for prisoners, which laid the foundation of today’s prison philosophy(Hardman, 2007).Prisons was not standalone architectures until after 1550s. London Bride well prison was one of the first workhouse prisons, converted from a royal palace in 1557.

The real form of prisons developed in 1700’s and the San Michele Juvenile prison in Rome was one of the first prisons designed and built for this purpose which was made operational in 1704 to house 60 offenders.

Delhi, the capital city has the highest number of jails (16) followed by Madhya Pradesh (11).

A jail is not only to punish but to reform according to Professor Keshav. It should be able to motivate the person to give up his criminal instincts and move back as an integral part of the society but the bland wall heights, long, dark, narrow corridors and isolation may hamper the psyche of the inmate. The change of architectural design in a highly secure and restricted area was a very difficult task. To propose a design concept he worked out a theoretical framework to discuss with the concerned officials:

Spatial proposal- architectural design

Prisoners in the prisons were interviewed by Professor. His focus was to get views regarding observations of prisoners about the Impact of architecture on their psychology. It was a general notion that the prisoners were in state of shock due to separation from family members, relatives, friends and outside open and beautiful world is so severe that for a long time they remain in depression. In this period nothing seems to be good, no feeling and sensitivity remained.

There were many committees that spoke off and advocated prison reform but very less has been incorporated. After interacting with prisoners prof Keshav found out many things. 

Overcrowding, prolonged detention of under-trial prisoners, unsatisfactory living conditions, lack of treatment programs and allegations of indifferent and even inhuman approach of prison staff have repeatedly attracted the attention of the critics over the years. The list is long but out of the list few important ones are:

a) Long bland brutal massive wall exhibit hardness and same is imbibed by the prisoner. Robust colorless brutal walls seen by the inmates 24x7 develops feeling  of anger, irritation, monotony, depression and anxiety .If these walls have murals, moral writings then they can even calm an irritated soul.

b) View of open fields – Mostly the area amidst the enclosure of walls is all plain so whenever seen from the window of the cell induces only emptiness. As a reform all open fields shall be kept green with good quality grass & flowering plants with cultivation of indigenous plants to enhance relaxation.

c) Linear/ long / monotonous barracks with the capacity of at least 30 prisoners. No privacy at any moment of time in the 24 hours. Excessive light in day time in the barracks because of big open windows or no light or diffused light through ventilator if the cell has bunk beds barracks.

d) Barrack Design - in conversation with Prof Keshav one prisoner discussed that they preferred the older cells as they had pitched roof, high height and very thick walls which in a way kept the cell cool even in summer days.

e) Kitchen – The prison kitchen had to prepare food for a large number of prisoners and so to keep the area clean was a daunting task. He tried to interact with the prison superintendent but in reply he was told food was secondary security, vigilance was important and if he could propose a plan with the trio, they were ready to incorporate.

It was always an open kitchen so that every activity could be monitored. The Indian breads were placed into the tandoor with the help of broomstick and thrown from point A to B. The blue colored area was of wash so the water sometimes even came to the place where breads were kept and if by chance the bread fell into the water it was never discarded. Professor was very annoyed with this practice and for next session he came out with a plan which could resolve the issue. He proposed a plan where separate counters were given for separate activities and the wall between (highlighted) them were party walls merely 750mm high.

f) Meeting Hall (Mulaqat Ghar) - People get to meet the inmates together and in the usual scenario the guard gallery is in between so all the relatives and the inmates have to shout.

There was a severe noise pollution resulting only in noises and nobody was able to hear. When professor entered the mulaqat ghar of Tihar he was not able to stand there for more than 5 minutes.

He proposed the plan in which he eliminated the guard gallery and created the U Shape movement and the resultant that the inmates and visitors came close and got more space because if the layout keeping the outside enclosure the same. The proposal was accepted as it had no negative consequences on security measures.

g) Toilet & Washroom facilities

Just as food is the fundamental right same way access to toilet and personal hygiene is also the basic right of the inmate. The plan of water closet clearly depicts that the WC were planned on raised door with void both on top and bottom.

The bath was all together an open to sky system with taps that also on raised platform. The slope of the platform was not appropriate and so water clogging was a very severe issue and it was a very uncomfortable affair in extreme hot and cold weather.

After studying Professor proposed to have void only on the top so that the user does not feel inappropriate while using water closet and similarly advocated closed bathing area. He even suggested having latch on the outer surface but all the proposals were denied stating security issues.

The major reason for the stress of prisoners is that their relatives are left outside. All they are left with is the prison staff and the inmates and the spaces and enclosures which form their world throughout their sentence. The pain of confinement is both mental and physical. Actually if the inmates get educational and recreational facility with counseling sessions they may be able to adapt to the surroundings which makes the meaningful world for him. So Professor Keshav proposed a multipurpose hall/recreational hall

for the same but again the design was refused as the jail authorities advocated that this luxury cannot be provided. They have open land for the same and don’t need additional built form.

Findings

While a person may sink into depression, apathy and withdrawal, the other might become resentful, angry and rebellious in an attempt to counter the control. The way the two individuals deal with their long sentences could also determine how they are each affected by the environment. While one might cope with the stress of long confinement by avoiding all thoughts of the future, the other may cope by finding a safe and comfortable behavioral niche within the institution. The real challenge is to design architecture that assists the rehabilitation programs by reducing the stress between inmates and prison staff and keeping the inmates calm. 

The graph represents that total number of prisoners and the no of prisoners per 1 Lakh population. (ICPR, 2021).A new generation of experimental prisons has started to rise in Europe, where prisoners are treated with excellent care, creating living an environment. For example-Justice and Detention Centre in Leoben.

Hohensinn, the architect who designed this prison, said: “They are criminals, but they are also human beings. The more normal a life you give them here, the less necessary it is to re-socialize them when they leave." But most of the authorities feel that it is still too early to conclude whether or not this prison would have a positive influence on their recidivism rates, it surely has shown no negative effects on society. The prisons consist of clean room for the prisoners and even facilities like walking yards, fitness centre and games facility.

Way Forward

At the Tihar Jail in Delhi. Kiran Bedi introduced prison reforms in India in the 1990‟s with programs that advocated hygiene, medical attention and effective rehabilitation programs. She advocated the importance of community-based reforms, focusing on meditation and encouragement of literacy with the involvement of NGO‟s and even students who can host street plays for prisoners. Architecturally, however, India is yet to effectively manifest its reformatory prison model but there is a major scope in the same. The jail consists of a claustrophobic and monotonous environment, which has health implications for both prisoners and, to some extent, staff who work in these units. Such health implications are made worse by the lack of opportunities for social, vocational and recreational activities which also characterize these units. Many prisons like the Cellular Jail in Port Blair are model on the historic British system of prison design. If India is to truly implement its rehabilitative prison programs at large in the country to counter the increasing menace of crimes and repeat offences, it must embark on the development of an Indian Prison Model. Much of our Indian philosophy is based on the theory of self-improvement as a way of life. The aim of psychosocially supportive design is to stimulate the mind in order to create pleasure, creativity, satisfaction and enjoyment and initiate a mental process that, by attracting a person’s attention, may reduce anxiety and promote positive psychological emotions. But the authorities are still not accepting the prototype of the model and Professor Keshav after retirement is called for meetings to opine on the same issues he had projected once. He still thinks will the humanitarian jail be ever conceptualized in Indian conservative scenario and will the architectural design in terms of light, airy cells; proper hygienic conditions of basic amenities will be able to reform criminal psychology and reduce recidivism or advocating for humane design will be a threat for proper functioning of the society.

Conflict of Interest

The researchers found no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgements

The researchers are immensely grateful to Professor Keshav Kumar for sharing his experiences and work in the field of reforming prisons as an architect.

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