“English Prisons have a poor record for reducing reoffending, 46% of adults are reconvicted within one year of release” (PRISON REFORM TRUST 2016). This statistic is an indication that there is a lack of rehabilitation within the prison system and post release support. This has led to an assessment into the causes behind reoffending, in an attempt to prevent the issue from continuing to cultivate. As this is such an extensive topic, I have chosen to limit my discussion to prison design and day-to-day life within the prison.

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My interest in this area developed after seeing so many videos on social media sites of prisoners smoking, drinking and causing havoc out of their cells. I questioned how this could happen inside a prison and that the prisoner were surely supervised and under surveillance.

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My secondary research will explain the effects spatial design has on human beings. Understanding this, will guide me deliberate possible future adaptations and alternatives to the UK’s prison design. In my primary research I will highlight any of the spatial design factors that could have an impact on the inmates serving their sentences in these prisons. First hand experiences from both sides of the prison bars will provide me, with an unbiased outlook, on the positives and negatives of the prison system.

I will be interviewing Officer Hemstead from HMP Wandsworth to get a clear description of how the design plays a part in controlling the prisoners, how they rehabilitate them and how they prepare them for release. I will also being interviewing two males who were held in different prisons; HMP Belmarsh and Ashfield Young Offenders Institute. This is to gain insight on their day-to-day life, to understand how they feel the design of the prison affected them and the experiences of prior and post release.

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Comparing and contrasting with a case study of a Scandinavian Prison will define the differences that give the region a much lower reoffending rate. In particular, I will be looking at Halden Prison in Norway that has been described as “the most humane prison” (WANG AND MOMENT, 2015).

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• How does spatial design affect us?

• How do inmates well being link to reoffending rates?

• Why do UK Prisons have a considerably higher reoffending rate than that of Scandinavian Prisons?

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• Identify how spatial design effects us psychologically and physiologically 

• Identify some precedents in the UK of prison design and every day prison life

• Distinguish the differences/ similarities of UK and Scandinavian prisons

• To find out what aspects of prison design have an effect on the metal well being of the inmate.

• Identify how Prison staff prepare prisoners for reintegration into society

• Ask professionals and inmates (ex or current) what they think of the prison design and every day prison life

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In order to get context on prison design and the effect it has on inmates and staff, I will carry out extensive secondary research through books, websites and journals. I will conduct interviews from both points of view; an officer from HMP Wandsworth and two males’ experiences of UK prisons sentences. I will refer back to my secondary research whilst analyzing my primary. I will compare my findings with research of a Scandinavian prison, Halden. Some limitations I may come across could include the prison not responding and my interviewees availability for interviewing. I would have benefitted from conducting questionnaires, however with a lack of connections in prisons, I was not able to organise this.