juvenile detention center architecture thesis

Bizhou Qian

Toronto, ON, CA

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JUVENILE CORRECTION AND REHABILITATION CENTRE

This is my graduation thesis project on Juvenile Correction Center.

Creative Fields

Architecture

Attribution, Non-commercial, No Derivatives

Juvenile Correctional Facility Design That Encourages Rehabilitation

When young people are sent to a correctional facility and given the tools they need to be successful while there, they are more likely to lead happy, productive lives after incarceration.

By focusing on juvenile correctional facility design principles that are restorative, such as open community areas, daylighting, calming acoustics, and more, facility administrators in partnership with architects can foster rehabilitation and create spaces in which young people can thrive.

Why Rehabilitative Juvenile Correctional Facility Design Matters

The best correctional facility design is based on normative design principles, which play an important role in reducing recidivism rates . In other words, when your juvenile correctional facility looks and feels more like a camp or a school than a prison, rehabilitation is more likely.

In a traditional juvenile correctional facility, individual cells are placed along narrow corridors and overseen by staff in elevated glass control rooms. But that type of layout does little to encourage positive interactions between inmates and supervisors.

Young people are more likely to cooperate and communicate with staff and actively participate in therapeutic programs when they are housed in an open, positive, welcoming environment that focuses on reformation rather than punishment.

At the Alameda County Juvenile Justice Center in San Leandro, California, HMC Architects partnered with another architectural design team to create a mix of secure areas and open community spaces. When juveniles break a rule, they are separated from the community and taken to a secure room. Through good behavior, they earn their way back into the community.

The Center also makes use of open staff stations to increase the comfort levels of both the juveniles and staff. The control stations are placed so that supervisors have excellent visibility and can intervene quickly, before conflicts escalate to violence. In fact, due to the installation of these control stations, violent incidents have decreased dramatically. Moreover, fewer violent incidents mean juveniles are less likely to receive additional infractions on their records, which makes it easier for them to find work or get accepted into academic programs after release.

These spaces improve the psychological well-being of inmates by promoting positivity and the effective communication skills juveniles need to turn their lives around. They also improve staff effectiveness and morale. Today, there is a waitlist of applicants vying for supervisor positions at the facility because the physical environment allows them to create positive change and the safety standards are so high.

The Most Effective Juvenile Correctional Facility Design Considerations

The layout of your facility, combined with the materials you use and the ambiance you create, can have a positive impact on rehabilitation rates. To create the most supportive environments, consider the following:

• Open Communal Areas: Increasing the size or number of community spaces will make the facility feel more open and encourage juveniles to leave their rooms and interact with peers and counselors.
• Flexible Furnishings: Modular chairs, tables, and sofas in communal rooms invite flexibility of use. Chairs can be pushed to the center of the room for group discussions or arranged in clusters to allow for one-on-one or smaller group counseling.
• Daylighting: Floor-to-ceiling windows and skylights allow natural light into spaces to promote a calming, less confined atmosphere.
• Central Control Stations: Supervisor stations placed at ground level and at the center of dayrooms and cafeterias allow inmates to feel more comfortable talking to staff. Counselors and supervisors can still keep a close eye on inmates while also helping to promote more casual, positive, face-to-face interactions.
• Outdoor Spaces: Designing secure outdoor gardens, greenhouses, athletic fields or courts, and eating areas can improve attitudes. When juveniles spend time outside, especially in green, non-threatening spaces, they feel less trapped. Moreover, these spaces can be designed around sports, outdoor horticulture, and other programs that teach juveniles important skills they can use after they’re released.
• Durable, Familiar Materials: Hard furnishings, such as tables, should be made from scratch-resistant materials to prevent defacing and vandalism. However, they should also be familiar to juveniles and not appear “institutional.” For example, acrylic tables are durable without looking cold or dreary.
• Peaceful Features: Facility interiors should promote a sense of calm. Choose soft LED lighting rather than harsh fluorescents and include positive, inspirational artwork that ideally reflects local or regional character. At Alameda County Juvenile Justice Center, inmates were enlisted to paint murals, making the space more personal and dynamic.
• Calming Acoustics: A juvenile correctional facility can get noisy. By including sound-absorbing materials on the walls, you can prevent noise from traveling and from hindering communication. When inmates and staff can hear instructions clearly, they are less likely to need further instructions or become frustrated.
• Convenience: The design team for Alameda County Juvenile Justice Center also created a courtroom inside the facility to allow inmates to appear before judges on-site. Consultation rooms were designed, too, so that juveniles and their lawyers can discuss their cases and update court officials on their progress. Not only does this benefit juveniles in the facility, but also it saves taxpayer money and correctional facility resources.
• Personalized Details: You can empower juveniles to make spaces their own by allowing them to re-arrange furniture and even choose their own bedding color. When young inmates are presented with options, they are less likely to vandalize their rooms and may feel more comfortable living in the facility.

These design details not only encourage rehabilitation, but also, when integrated with existing security standards, they help ensure that staff and inmates feel safe in the space.

The Benefits of Effective Juvenile Correctional Facility Design

Beyond reducing recidivism rates and discouraging violence in correctional facilities, normative design may also be more cost-effective. According to a June 2018 Urban Institute report on community-based alternatives to juvenile incarceration, the state of Virginia “spent $15 on youth incarceration for every $1 spent on community-based services in 2016 at a staggering cost of more than $170,000 per youth per year.” By creating more supportive facilities that promote juvenile rehabilitation, states could save hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

Creating a juvenile correctional facility that breaks away from traditional prison design is an easier process when you hire an experienced design firm to handle every detail. HMC Architects understands how to design a correctional facility around the needs of inmates and staff. From Alameda County Juvenile Justice Center to the San Diego County Women’s Detention Facility we have designed spaces that promote rehabilitation and help reduce recidivism rates.

We specialize in designs that encourage rehabilitation rather than punishment, so that juvenile inmates can lead more productive, fulfilling lives after release. If you’re ready to learn more about juvenile correctional facility design, contact HMC Architects today. For answers to questions about correctional facility design and design of other civic buildings, email James Krueger, AIA, Design Principal , directly.

James Krueger, AIA, NCARB

Director of design.

As Director of Design, James oversees design and leads strategies to improve the impact of HMC’s work. Formerly serving as design principal where he led projects for HMC’s PreK-12 and civic practices, Krueger’s creative approach emphasizes the firm’s purpose of “design for good” to support clients with high-performance solutions that aim to have a positive impact.

At HMC Architects, we believe a successful design is one that brings people together around shared interest and community purpose.

To learn more or become part of our story, contact us today.

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Transforming juvenile detention centers into community hubs for youth crisis assessment and crisis care

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As a firm with significant government design expertise, we know many of our public sector clients find it challenging to effectively address behavioral health crises in their communities, especially when working with young people. Many times, minors detained by police suffer from mental health or substance abuse issues but have not committed a crime to allow for detention. If police officers determine a detained minor won’t face charges, the juvenile must wait to be picked up by parents or other guardians in what can turn into a traumatic environment. Rather than being placed in a safe, quiet space, they are typically held in police stations or juvenile detention facilities. Traditional models rely heavily on law enforcement officers to assess situations in which minors are at risk, but they often have not been equipped with proper tools or training to do so. Detention facilities frequently act as de facto holding areas for individuals who may need specialized treatment or to be moved to a different space. To better help these young people get the care they need, some counties and communities are adding crisis assessment, or crisis care centers, to their detention center facilities. Oftentimes, multiple cities within a county collaborate with community and religious organizations to financially support the creation of crisis assessment centers. Crisis centers are growing in popularity because they are designed to accommodate a range of crises, from mental to medical, and provide a safe place and continuum of care to minors in need. These centers create a central location for officers to drop off detainees and quickly get back to patrolling. Once in a crisis assessment center/care, young people have access to screenings, assessments, referrals and counseling professionals who can provide emotional support and ensure they receive the appropriate care. Here are 3 reasons why crisis assessment and crisis care functionality should be considered when planning new juvenile detention facilities:

1. Create safer communities Crisis centers take a proactive rather than reactive approach to addressing juvenile behavioral health. Upon arrival at a crisis center, young people are typically assessed and receive counseling options or information on other resources that can address their needs. They can also receive a referral for follow-up services and care, whether at a hospital, mental health facility or detox/rehabilitation facility. Providing juveniles with proactive solutions and ensuring they receive the help they need creates safer communities and decreases the likelihood of minors hurting themselves or others in the future.

2. Decrease recidivism Some juvenile justice systems, especially in smaller communities, lack the ability to support and provide sufficient mental health services for detainees, which can increase recidivism. Crisis centers can also be a familiar place to provide post-detention resources to keep up with a youth’s progress and treatment. These services are especially helpful when crisis centers are directly attached to detention facilities and deliver continued care from incarceration to reintroduction into society. Ongoing care makes these centers successful and helps reduce the number of reoffenders.

3. Save taxpayers money Over the past decade, the responsibility of mental health has shifted from state governments to local governments. Smaller cities struggle to keep up with their community’s needs, and many who suffer are met with dwindling solutions. With limited access to resources, law enforcement officers typically have only two options when responding to a person in a mental health or substance crisis: detention facility or the emergency room. Both choices are expensive operations to run. A crisis center can be a good third option to provide local officers or family with a centrally located, fully equipped facility that reduces the time and money it takes to hold detainees and allows officers to return to duty.

How to design a comforting and functional crisis assessment and crisis care center When designing crisis centers, visitors should expect professional service in a caring and supportive environment. Many people who arrive at these centers have histories of trauma, and a supportive environment is paramount. As designers, it is important to consider what will make young people feel at home and comfortable while getting access to the care and services they need. By focusing on design principles that are restorative, facility administrators in partnership with architects can foster rehabilitation and create spaces in which young people can access the resources they need to thrive.

This article was originally published in Correctional News on August 24, 2022 and can be viewed here .

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Life of juvenile prisoners in Russia

No comments · Posted by Sergei Rzhevsky in People , Photos

The juvenile delinquency is one of the problems of modern Russia. The following photos were captured in one of the youth prisons located in Saratov oblast of Russia.

Tags:  Saratov oblast

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Neva Towers Multifunctional Estate / HOK + FXFOWLE + SPEECH

• Written by Patrick Lynch

Visualizations of the last full-scale skyscrapers in Moscow ’s new International Business Center (“Moscow City”) have been revealed. Designed by an international team made up of HOK (USA), FXFOWLE (USA) and SPEECH (Russia), the two “Neva Towers” will provide additional residential and office space to the skyscraper district, which includes many of Europe’s tallest structures, including Europe’s tallest building, Federation Tower (sometimes called Vostok Tower); and one of the world’s tallest twisting buildings, Evolution Tower .

Located on a triangular site in the northwest of Moscow City, the two rectangular towers rise from a 4-story podium, arranged to create an open plaza and green space surrounding the buildings that will be free from future development. The landscaped space will serve as the entry point to the towers, as well as to the aboveground and underground retail galleria and parking deck.

Program types will be split between the two skyscrapers – the taller of the two buildings will reach a height of 338 meters and will contain 77 floors of residential units, while the shorter tower will provide 63 floors broken up between office and apartment levels. In total, the project will add 1,210 new apartment units.

As they rise, the towers retain a classic form that gradually steps back to a fully glazed top tier to give the structure a visual lightness and provide the penthouse apartments with panoramic views of the city.

“The tower configuration is expressly laconic: the shape of the flat high-rise buildings is modified by slight shifts of the central parts forming a sort of a core of the towers, which is enveloped on both sides by three tiers tapering upwards,” explain development group Renaissance Development.

“The facades of both towers are decorated with pylons getting narrower from the bottom up. Such design imparts a special appeal to the structure, being both effectively up-to-date and recalling the legendary specimens of the 20th century high-rise construction.”

The project has been estimated to be completed by 2019.

News via Renaissance Development .

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Photographs, project gallery.

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Address: 1-y krasnogvardeyskiy pr-d, 17-18, moskva, russia, 123317.

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