Cruel and Unusual: The Architecture of Oppression

Currently over 2.4 million people are incarcerated in the state prison system in the United States. This figure is a result of dramatic spike in incarceration since 1980, in which the U.S. prison population has grown 800%. The U.S. prison population far out numbers every other country on a per capita basis. Today, 734 of each 100,000 Americans are behind bars. Within this population, two statistics stand out: 72% of prison inmates are incarcerated are there for non-violent offenses and 55% of the overall prison population is serving time for drug related charges. Decades of ?get tough on crime? initiatives and a poorly devised and implemented drug war have taxed the prison system beyond its capacity. The prison system has long been based on a theory of punishment and atonement. Harsh sentencing guidelines put in place by the justice system were designed to deter crime, and in the alternative, to dissuade criminal offenders from ever returning to the prison system. Underlying the prison system?s ideology is that offenders will be rehabilitated in prison and will be less likely to re-offend. Research has shown that this is not the case. Truly, five year prison recidivism rates linger at 70%. The prison system has become a failed experiment that perpetuates itself. The flaws within the U.S. prison system become more apparent every day and the future of the incarceration prototype is of paramount importance. This thesis explores to what extent architecture can move prisons closer to their goal of rehabilitation and reduced recidivism. Prison conditions, prisoner-officer relations and the psychology of value and worth are evaluated as principal factors in the effort to reform this underachieving model of society