Prison architecture for females

Abstract

The studies on prison buildings in Europe date back to the first millennium and the conceptual evolution of punishment methods are closely linked to architectural design and criminology. Architects and civil authorities gave little importance to categorise, demarcate and classify the different needs of male and female convicts in prisons. The purpose of this study is to attempt to determine the appropriateness of the architectural design of prisons in Malta for female prisoners, contextualised with punishment philosophies and suggest ways on how to improve the architectural designs to meet rehabilitation and correctional standards. The study revealed that architectural designs did little to provide acceptable conditions for inmates and officers who served their sentence or duty in degrading prison environment. Buildings intended to hold inmates were transformed from dungeons to prisons with today's name changed to correctional facilities. This research study disclosed that the architectural design in Malta, built in 1897, has undergone various improvement attempts. Yet, the building itself and the management systems lack a comprehensive strategy that aims to address the correctional facility's aim, ignoring the specific needs of female inmates and officers. The research proposes improvements in architectural design, environmental control, and management systems for future implementation for the general well being of inmates and officers as human beings.