A NEW APPROACH TO PRISON DESIGN

(A CASE STUDY OF FEDERAL PRISON, ABUJA)

By

Author

Presented To

Department of Environmental Design

ABSTRACT
Increasing crime appears to be a failure of all modern industrialised societies. The crime rate and efforts to control it has led to the evolution of prisons. Prisons are places created to shelter the reformation of judged criminals. Depending on perception, it may be viewed as a place to reform the convicted offenders of the society. Prison is seen by most people as an inevitable part of the penal system and there is a growing awareness that its effect on offenders are rarely beneficial and may be positively harmful. In Prisoners of the society Martin Davis argues that there is still the need in the society for a commitment, not only to reform its deviant members, but also to provide a compassionate service in those situations where it is most needed The essence of this study is to examine the purpose and effectiveness of prisons and to use the principles of rational architectural design in creating a more effective prison program. Studies have shown that even good rehabilitation programmes sometimes fail to reform prisoners after the expiration of their prison term. Some schools of thought attribute the apparent failure of such programmes to the rapidly evolving cultural dynamics and social trends. This is why it is of great importance to evaluate current prison conditions in the country. This study will examine ways of improving prison conditions through architectural solutions. Prison conditions have changed in some ways over the years, but the nature of imprisonment is depressingly similar. In Nigeria, the present state of prisons donot meet the required standards for the policies and objectives of the national Penal System. Most of the existing facilities were established during the colonial era. The penal system then VIII was based on punitive rather than corrective reformation. As a result, these facilities are no longer suitable for achieving current and future goals. In the pursuit of adequate architectural design solutions, rational basis of problem definition, analysis synthesis and solutions have been employed. Relevant research has been conducted with regards to overall objectives, means methodologies, as well as media of communication of research products. In terms of context, consideration is given at both macro (i.e. in terms of the global world situation) and micro (i.e. in terms of the Nigerian national context) scale. The objective at all times as been to give practical application to the design solutions proposed and presented in the fulfilment of requirements for postgraduate thesis. It is expected that at the end of this exercise, this study will lead to the evolution of a prototype prison environment capable of meeting the expectation and challenges of the nation, state and society. The focus of this study is to suggest ways of improving prison conditions through provision of necessary infrastructure and space allocations, organisations and articulations. The long term objective will be to achieve a humane oUsposjiion that will fully reintegrate rehabilitated offenders into the society.