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News

Expert sheds light on prison architecture

Colbert says architects of modern penitentiaries put aesthetics on back burner

by MAYRA CRUZ
The Daily Cougar

Designing prisons presents an unusual set of challenges as architects prioritize safety and intimidation, College of Architecture Director of Graduate Studies Thomas Colbert said in his lecture "The Carceral City: The Architecture of Prisons in Texas" on Tuesday. 

The lecture, part of Rice Design Alliance's Initiatives for Houston series, focused on the history of incarceration and the modern institution of penitentiaries.

"There are a vast number of people in Texas in some form of custody or restraint, and it's a completely mysterious world. None of us know anything about it," Colbert said. "I'm interested in parts of the city that are very important that we don't normally look at, (that) we're almost trained not to see. And the prison system is certainly like that.

"I thought it was time to look beyond the wall. I wanted us to go inside -- look at what was there and why."

The lecture focused on Huntsville's Wall Unit and Holliday Transfer Facility.

The architecture of Texas prisons is designed to appear imposing and menacing on the outside and features numerous safety features, such as barbwire fences. The modern prison system is meant to impose order as a way to reform inmates through regimented activities, such as construction, Colbert said.

Ray Hill, producer and host of The Prison Show on KPFT-FM, said construction projects offer a worthwhile experience to incarcerated individuals.

"I think that prison construction with inmate involvement has some broader cultural and social value, and it may have been the only productive work those people have had in their lifetimes," he said. "They take pride and ownership in that they not only did it, but that it still endures and bears a mark of their being here."

During the photographic slideshow part of the lecture, Colbert explained how contemporary correctional facilities are designed with safety in mind.

The prisons shown in the lecture provide minimal furnishings and have functional space for inmates to inhabit and guards to patrol. Safety, rather than design aesthetic, is a priority in Texas prisons, Colbert said.

Prisons were originally used as a containment area for inmates awaiting punishment. The idea of confinement as a punishment in itself took hold around the time of the Enlightenment in Europe. Inmates were viewed as people who could be reformed through hard work and disciplined within the term of incarceration, Colbert said.

Prisons themselves are a challenge for architects, Colbert said.

"It exposes a lot of questions that we're not normally faced with about history and (the) trajectory of architecture, but also self-awareness of our social customs and the relation to them," he said.

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