HISTORY OF PRISON DESIGN and usually fatal.

 Actual prisons truly served as a holding place for those

Prisons have existed in human society for thousands of years. A condemned to die. Occasionally one might be detained to

prison is any institution or device that holds a captive in custody. await trial, but usually those awaiting trial were encouraged

Among the most common types are jails, or closed structures that to go into voluntary exile. Those awaiting trial were called

detain persons for shorter periods, often while they await trial, and "carcer" or "publica vincula." That is how the term

state prisons or penitentiaries that hold persons serving sentences for “incarceration”, which means imprisonment, came into

crime. Other forms of imprisonment dating from antiquity have being.

included slavery and involuntary servitude, both as a punishment for  There were houses of detention for slaves. In the country, a

crime and as a form of exploitation. For as long as wars have villa might have two areas to keep problem slaves, one for

occurred, some vanquished persons usually have been held as those shackled and one for those allowed a bit more freedom.

captives instead of being killed. History has included all of these  Roman citizens were chained to soldiers by their wrists
forms of imprisonment and more. Prisons have not simply been used before suffering savage punishments by the Roman Law.
as a recent punishment for crime.  Underground cisterns were used as prisons in the early times.
For example, the Mamertine Prison in Rome.

Roman Prisons
Mamertine Prison, Rome
The Prison was constructed around 640-
 Romans did not use prisons as
616 BC, by Ancus Marcius. It was
we do. The wealthy accused
originally created as a cistern for a spring
were kept under house arrest.
in the floor of the second lower level.
The poor found justice swift
A cell in Mamertine
Mamertine prison, Rome.
Now a pilgrimage site
Modern steps lead down to the upper level of the prison, which is at
the original ground level of ancient Rome. The doorway is modern. Bastille, France
The upper room of the prison is trapezoidal in shape and dates from In the early 17th
the 2nd century BC. The walls are made of blocks of tufa. The lower century, the Bastille
room, the Tullianum, is circular and made of blocks of peperino was converted from a
held together without mortar. This was the most inner and secret medieval fortress to a
part of the larger complex, and here the condemned were thrown state prison for the
and usually strangled. The lower room was originally accessed upper class, though Ground floor plan of the Bastille
through a round opening in the floor of the upper room, which is prisoners had been
now covered with a grate. Today, access is by means of a confined there long
modern staircase on the left. before. But at the end
of the 17th century
Medieval Prisons this began to change

During the Medieval times a lot of castle keeps or fortresses were as more common Elevation of the Bastille
converted to prisons. A very famous example of this type of a prison criminals were
is the Bastille in France. Yedikule Hisari in modern-day Istanbul, incarcerated; Living conditions declined as this new class of
Castle of Spielberg, Venetian Ducal Palace are more examples of criminal became the majority. There was a marked difference in the
this type. treatment of upper class and lower class prisoners. Torture and
exacution was a very well known trait of Bastille. The prison
Bastille was purposely cloaked in mystery to instill horror by its
very name. However, the reality of the Bastille was far less cruel 8.5m x 5.0m, and 2.4m in height. They had cement floors,
than other such medieval prisons of the time. boarded walls and a toilet bucket. Windows had only iron
grills and no glazing. There was no provision for heating
Yedikule Hisari (Seven Towers Dungeon), Istanbul rooms in winter. Other chambers were used for school,
A seven-towered fortress, it church, dining, administration and punishment.
was initially built to protect  The idea of segregation of men and women in prison came
the kingdom‟s treasury. But from the Dutch in 1593.
when the treasury was
relocated, it began to be used Country Gaols and Bridewells in England
as dungeons for
incarceration. The place of Seven Towers dungeon, Istanbul  Gaols were for safe custody of debtors and others awaiting
imprisonment of many foreign trial or sentence.
ambassadors and Ottoman statesman, as well as a place of execution  Bridewells had small rooms, no chimneys, glass shutters,
for some, the fortress was last used as a prison in 1831. court, water or employment. They were discontinued in the
18th century.
Bridewells  Women‟s wards were unusual in gaols.
 Buildings were usually two or three storied structures
 Tudor period – Beggars and vagrants would be provided arranged in a haphazard way to enclose one or more courts,
with compulsory employment. which were used for exercise.
 In a bridewell in Holland, there were 9 rooms housing 4-12  Often these were never designed to house prisoners in the
prisoners each. A room being 5.2m x 3.2m, larger ones were first place and many rooms and buildings quickly developed
 into fetid dens where men, women and children were concept of the design is to
confined brutally. allow an observer to observe
all prisoners without the
PRISON REFORMS incarcerated being able to
tell whether they are being
 Prison reforms were first initiated by the Roman Catholic
watched.
Church and the Quakers in America in 1650.
 The first cellular prison in support of these reforms was St.  Here, tiered cells were arranged in a centralised
Michael‟s prison built by the Roman Catholic Church in configuration, at the hub of which was positioned the guard‟s
1704. viewing tower. The design precept was to facilitate absolute
 The separation was done, to encourage each prisoner to observation with minimum staff supervision.
reflect on his misdeeds in solitude
 This type of prison building has inspired many modern-day
 All the cells had a view of the Altar
correctional facilities like Stateville Correctional Centre and
 Examples: House of Correction, Milan and Newgate Prison
the Twin Towers Correctional facility, both in the USA.

Panopticon Pennsylvania or Philadelphia System

 The Panopticon is a type  Two centuries ago, Philadelphia

of prison building designed and Pennsylvania became the centre
by English philosopher and of prison reform worldwide.
social theorist Jeremy
 The system of 24-hour separation of
Bentham in 1791. The
 each prisoner coupled with in-cell feeding, work, and Auburn System/New York System
vocational instruction, came to be known as the
Pennsylvania System or Separate System.  The Auburn system is a
a penal method established
 The system and its unusual architecture - a central hub and in 1817, in which persons
radiating cellblocks – were seldom imitated in other states. worked during the day in

 Example: Eastern State Penitentiary groups and were kept

in solitary confinement at
- One of the night, with enforced silence at all times. It was so named, as
largest structures it evolved in the Auburn Prison, New York.
in the country at
the time and far  This type of prison structure involves single rooms in a linear
form, and the cells are back to back, creating an absolutely divided
exceeding cost
space. This forms single cells (sometimes as small as 0.75m x
estimates.
1.8m) in inner lines, and can be developed into wings or around
- Each prisoner was to be provided with a cell from courtyards.
which they would rarely leave and each cell had to be large
Marks System
enough to be a workplace and have attached a small
individual exercise yard  Penal method developed about 1840 by Alexander
Maconochie at the English penal colony of Norfolk Island,
- Cutting edge technology of the time was used to
east of Australia.
install conveniences unmatched in other public buildings like
central heating, a flush toilet in each cell and shower baths.
  Instead of requiring devised by Sir Walter Crofton.
convicts to serve
 To test the moral character of the convict and to see if he was
their sentences with
fit for liberty, he was compelled to reside six months in the
no hope of release
prison at Lusk, Wyoming, USA, a prison without walls, bars,
until the full
or bolts, where the culprits were employed as free workmen
sentence had been
in agriculture or a trade.
served, a convict could earn freedom by hard work and good
behaviour in the prison. American Reformatory Prison System
 The earned marks could be used to purchase either goods or  This system of „protection‟ in place of punishment was
a reduction in sentence. devised by Zebulon Reed Brockway (1876).

 Prisoners had to pass through a series of stages beginning  Its purpose was, the rehabilitation of inmates rather than
with strict imprisonment through conditional release to final their intimidation by restraint.
freedom. Movement through the stages was dependent upon
the number of marks accredited. This is also the origin of the  Example:- Elmira

Parole System which is followed till date. Reformatory, New York

Progressive System Open Prison System

 This system of  As prison reform continued

conditional liberty was further, the closed prison led

to open prison, or „prison without bars‟.
  The inmates were required to carry out agrarian activities,  Unfortunately, on the inside there were many hard-to-
keeping them busy, and teaching them agricultural skills. monitor corners and other places that were ideal for
The produce from these activities would be used for stabbings, beatings and other forms of violence.
consumption by the inmates.
 Example: Fresnes Prison, Paris
 The first open prison
was established in
- The prison was
constructed
Witzwil, Switzerland
between 1895 and
in 1891 and was the
1898 according to
vision of Otto
a design devised
Kellerhals.
by the
architect, Henri
Poussin.
Telephone Pole System
- It comprises a large men's jail of about 1200 cells, a smaller
 They had a central corridor linking a series of rectangular
one for women and a penitentiary hospital.
cell houses at right angles to the corridor

- All cells were planned along the outside walls and were
 Designed specifically to control prison violence. They were
built like fortresses that appeared to be quite secure. approximately 3.9m x 2.4m and 3m in height .
Indian Prison System
According to the Prison Statistics Report 2000, India has about
2,48,115 prisoners in total to the available capacity of 2,11,720.
Prisons in India are still governed by the century old Prisons Act
1894 and the Prisoners Act 1900. The application of a century old
law in the changed socio-political scenario is absolutely bizarre, and
is out of tune with the entirely transformed picture of human society.
During the past some decades several organisations, intellectuals
and committees set up for jail reforms have expressed their views on
the importance of reviewing the Act which is not comprehensive.
Overcrowding is the greatest practical hindrance to efforts of
reforming the Indian prison system. Some prisons house as much as
three times more inmates than their capacity. Prisons in general are
housed in dilapidated age-old buildings with its management in the
hands of an untrained, disgruntled, over-worked and insufficient
staff. Constraints of inappropriate working conditions weigh over
opportunities for correctional work.

The new thinking on prisons has been duly summarised by the

dictum that convicted persons go to prison as punishment and
not for punishment. The condition of a substantially large number of
prisons continues to be bad and dehumanising of the residuary rights
of inmates. There has been a plethora of recommendations for the
improvement of these conditions both from recommendatory bodies
and from the apex judiciary but a large chunk of these
recommendations has not seen the light of the day.