Life Continues in Prison

Abstract

This study is to create a prison environment that is attuned to the users. To design a prison that enhances the safety of interactions between staff and guards with inmates as well as inmates with each other. I want to focus on a project that changes the perception of prisons in the United States. This facility will be a place that has a greater purpose than that of prisons today. I want to reduce the daily stress of being employed at a prison, being an inmate a prison and as a loved one of someone that is still secure. While providing an environment to connect inmates with their lives outside of prison, it will be a design that has not given up on humanity and human needs. Through research of case studies of prisons across the world and writings about Navajo justice and spirituality I plan to have a process driven thesis project. By learning where previous case studies have succeeded in their prison ideologies/ designs, I plan to expand these to envision a prison meant to fulfill modern incarceration needs. From here, I plan to create a solution that will serve the Navajo people, community of Gallup, New Mexico and surrounding areas by offering them a safe and uplifting facility.