Alberto Urrutia-Moldes
PhD; BSc Eng; BSc Const.
Research
PhD, University of Sheffield
My research interest is to promote the health and well-being of the users of institutional settings, with a particular focus in prisons, and the effects of the built and natural environments in the rehabilitation of people in prison.
My research looks for understanding how designers and high-level staff of prison services address health and well-being in prison design in different prison models. In doing that, I carried out fieldwork in three world regions, visiting prison facilities and collecting data from countries associated with the Rehabilitation prison model (Norway and Finland), the Safety model (USA), and the Hybrid prison model (Chile) between 2016 to 2017.
For this study, I implemented a qualitative driven mixed-methods research design that included semi-structured interviews, non- participant observation and policy documents.
Prison designers, the high-level staff of prison services of the selected countries, as well as international advisors from the United Nations were interviewed to understand their perspective about which architectural factors should be considered in prison design to promote inmates’ health and well-being; how and why key decision-makers actually consider those factors; and what can be done to evolve towards a prison design that promotes health and well-being of their users.
NORWAY: Halden Fengsel (Halden Prison)
Halden prison is a high-security prison, and one of the largest prisons in Norway with a capacity for 252 inmates; 228 inmates inside the prison and 24 additional inmates in the halfway house located immediately outside the walled area. The prison is located 116km south of the Norwegian capital Oslo, in the northwest of the town of Halden. The level of security of Halden prison can be clearly observed from the outside of the prison. Its 30 ha site is surrounded by a 1.3 km long and 6 meters tall concrete wall, in addition to a 30 m wide security zone containing an external ring road, a ring fence, and several metallic towers full of sensors and CCTV cameras. In the inside, however, there are no visible traditional security elements. The prison was designed and built following the principle of normality, meaning that for prisoners, one day in prison has to be felt and lived as normal as a day in the outside community. It is worth to mention that Scandinavian prison systems have the highest rates of successful prison rehabilitation outcomes in the world.
FINLAND: Vantaa Vankila (Vantaa prison)
Vantaa prison is a Finnish high-security pre-trial prison (jail). It was designed and built to contain the prison population of the Helsinki Katajanokka prison which closed in 2002. It is located 21 km northeast of the capital Helsinki, outside the city of Vantaa. With an average prison population of 237 inmates, the prison employs 138 people.
FINLAND: Helsinki Vankila (Helsinki Prison)
Opened in 1881, Helsinki prison was designed as a three stories plus basement building, using a typical telephone pole shape. It is located in the Kalasatama district of Helsinki. It is the only prison operating at the moment in Helsinki after the close of Katajanokka prison in 2002. Helsinki prison has a capacity of 284 inmates. The prison interiors have been under renovation works to fit the current prison standards.
FINLAND: Vanaja female open prison
Vanaja has two units. One in Vanaja for female inmates and one in Ojoinen for male inmates. Vanaja female open prison is located 128 km north of Helsinki, outside the city of Hämeenlinna. It works as a farm in which inmates live and work. The capacity of Vanaja is 60 women who live in separated living units for 6 people each.
FINLAND: Ojoinen, the Vanaja male open prison
The Vanaja male open unit is located in Ojoinen sector, north of Hämeenlinna city. It has a capacity for 40 inmates who live and work in different areas of the unit.
FINLAND: Helsinki hotel prison
Katajanokka prison dates back to 1888, with the oldest part opened in 1837. It was the Helsinki County Prison and investigative penitentiary until the prison closed its doors in 2002, following the inauguration of a new modern prison outside Vantaa. After the closing of Katajanokka prison, the building was extensively renovated and converted. In 2007 the prison was reborn into a modern, high-class hotel. Hotel Katajanokka opened its doors in May 2007 with 106 rooms, a restaurant, five meeting rooms, a prison chapel, gym and sauna facilities.
USA: Kentucky Luther Luckett Correctional Complex
Luther Luckett Correctional Complex is a high-security prison located 40 km northeast of Louisville city in Kentucky, USA. It started operating in 1981 to housing 486 inmates, but in 1990 was upgraded to receive a total prison population of 1997 inmates in double-bunking cells.
USA: Louisiana State Penitentiary
Louisiana State Penitentiary is the largest maximum-security prison in the USA. The prison (which is a maximum-security prison farm) is also known as Angola prison after the former plantation that occupied this territory. It is located 90 km northwest Baton Rouge and 250 km northwest New Orleans. The prison site is 7,300 ha and the total prison population of 6,300 inmates under the control of 1,800 prison staff.
USA: Metropolitan Correctional Center, Chicago (MCC Chicago)
The Metropolitan Correctional Center, Chicago (MCC Chicago) is a Federal prison, located in the heart of Chicago, Illinois. It was opened in 1975 as one of the first prison facilities designed as using podular design with direct supervision. The building has 28 triangular stories and a rooftop exercise yard.
CHILE: Bio-Bio Prison
In Chile, the official prison occupancy level was reduced during the first decade of the current century to a current 110.9% by the development of a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program of construction, in which seven new prisons were designed and built between 2000 and 2010. They provided an additional capacity of 13,530 beds. Although those prisons implied a big step forward in Chilean carceral conditions, the fact that they were designed in a typical rectangular layout of indirect supervision (a corridor with cells on the sides) perpetuate the punitive hedonic prison philosophy and the lack of interest for inmates well-being.
CHILE: CDP Santiago-Sur
The former Santiago-Penitentiary (1843), today called ‘CDP Santiago Sur’ is the largest prison, yet the oldest prison in Chile.
