Prison as Home: Characteristics of Control Within General Prison and Solitary Confinement Environments

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore stakeholder' perspectives of control within general correctional and solitary confinement environments with findings focused on trust, sound, views to nature, routine, and time. Research was conducted at two medium security prisons in a large US state with male inmates. Using a survey methodology, interviews occurred with 10 inmates, 10 correctional officers, two superintendents, one staff psychologist, one nurse, and two correctional design architects. Observations and photography followed while visiting and leaving the prisons. Using grounded theory as a data analysis tool identified the themes of trust, views to nature, sound, time, and routine viewed through the overarching premise of control. Incongruence between rehabilitation and punitive environmental goals were found. Correctional officers who emphasized fear and trust valued visual surveillance despite its ability to lead to austere indoor and outdoor spaces. Inmates craved outdoor views along with personal possessions as these items established a more meaningful passage of time. Sound, as noted by the correctional architects, was not designed as a rehabilitative tool, but instead was used to denote impending attacks. And routine, so valued by inmates, was often taken away as a form of control. Implications suggest that the US prisons observed in this study exemplified control, dominance, and punishment. Future prison design should embrace the rehabilitative and healing strategies used in European models to help lower rates of recidivism which are problematic in the American prison system.