project 45/

THE OPTIMAL PLAN FOR A PRISON

B. Rimanov, Military Personnel, Vitebsk

Today's incarceration of prisoners in current prison conditions contains a multitude of problems of an economic as well as a psychological nature, in particular the protection and safety of the personnel. In addition, modern prisons do not resolve the problem of the accumulative aggressiveness of the prisoners, which leads to constant dangerous incidents. Analyzing cases of these "outbursts," psychologists often arrive at the conclusion that their cause, along with others, rests in the very construction of prison space, no matter how well-designed it may seem. It violates two basic components of any stable psychological state of any person, including a criminal: the need for vast surrounding space, and the need for "one's own" space, which do not contradict but rather complement one another, and it is rarely possible to combine them, not only in prisons but also in ordinary life. The new plan for a prison dwelling proposed in this project envisages a very large and high square hall, where low square platforms 270 x 270 in size and 47 cm high and made of concrete are installed across the entire surface of the floor with narrow aisles between them. This is the territory intended for one prisoner.

A bed and a cement immovable table for writing and reading are placed on the platform. It is strictly forbidden to move from one platform to another. Wherein remains the notion of punishment by incarceration in this project if the main human "needs" in it, it seems, are met? The answer is immediate, all one has to do is to glance in the proposed sketch: the punishment rests in the enormous quantity of people located continually next to each other in the very same abundant torment, about which it has been said: "Hell is other people."

THE OPTIMAL PLAN FOR A PRISON

1. Make a table on legs and build walls on it so that they are on the same plane as the side surface of the table. The maximum height of the uneven upper edge of the walls is 27 cm.

2. Cut square blocks of wood 14 x 14 x 2 (cf. sketch) and glue them on the bottom of the table as indicated in the sketch.

Leave room for the "partitions" in one part of the table.

3. Glue "beds" 4 x 20 x l cm; a small piece of wood 2.5 x 2.5 x l cm and a round partition (toilet) out of cardboards; drill a hole in the middle of it. The bed, bar and toilet should be gray.

4. Make 4 closed doors.