www.matterarchitecture.uk/research
Syste
m design (top-down)
Plac
e-based design (middle-out)
Evidenced-based vision of justice and consistent
political leadership
Reduce the prison populationImprove staffing
Invest in alternatives & preventionChange commissioning
Consult with prison usersSupport good practice
Reaching outDelegated decision-making
Integrating with local services, economies and stakeholders
Asset-based approachSharing knowledge
Monitoring
Ever
y day design (bottom-up)Co-design solutions with
staff and prisonersSource local initiativesSweat the small stuff
Find the 'pinch points'
supporting
intelligence
devolving
delivering
enablingcreating change
Framework
Project team
Roland KarthausDirector, Matter Architecture Ltd
Roland Karthaus co-founded Matter with Jonathan McDowell in 2016. The practice is working on a wide range of projects including masterplanning,housing, education, commercial and bridge projects and is committed to creating places and buildings that improve people’s lives through the energetic pursuit of excellent design.
Roland has been a registered Architect since 2002, a Member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and an RIBA Client Adviser. He is a Fellow ofthe Royal Society of Arts and a Design Council Built Environment Expert.Roland will lead the project with the assistance of a project architect and architectural assistant.
Lily Bernheimer Director, Space Works Consulting
Lily is an environmental psychology consultant, researcher and writer. She is the Founding Director of Space Works Consulting where she consults on making human environments work better for the people and purposes they serve. Her first book, The Shaping of Us: How Everyday Spaces Structure our Lives, Behaviour, and Well-Being, will be published by Little Brown in 2017.Lily was a Research Fellow at the University of Surrey, where she obtained her MSc. in Environmental Psychology. At Space Works, Lily has specialised in developing evidence-based design strategy and metrics for workplaces and other complex environments.
Rachel O’BrienFreelance, including the RSA
Rachel is an acknowledged expert in the field of prison reform. Author of the Learning Prison (RSA) lead for the RSA Transitions project and the Future Prison project, she is currently leading the development work for the New Futures Network at the RSA with Pamela Dow. Rachel will provide expertise on the current reform landscape and links across the sector.
Richard BarnesDirector, Richard P Barnes Associates
Richard is currently a justice consultant and social entrepreneur. He is working to create new employment and social inclusion opportunities for prisoners and people with convictions in the community. His current interests range from prison design conducive rehabilitation environments,creating a whole system rehabilitation culture and effective partnership working. Richard will provide expertise in through the gate service provision and wider networks.
Innovate UK Competition - Design Foundations - Application Feb 2017
Appendix I p.3Application 91980-553373Design tools for healthy prison environments
Roland KarthausArchitect, MA Regen. RIBA, FRSADirector, Matter ArchitectureSenior Lecturer, University of East London
Roland Karthaus co-founded Matter with Jonathan McDowell in 2016. Currently he leads on specialist housing, education and regeneration projects within the practice as well as research and teaching at the University of East London. Roland has been a registered Architect since 2002. He is a Design Council CABE Built Environment Expert, a member of the RIBA Planning Advisory Group and an RIBA Client Adviser. In 2018 he won an RIBA President’s award for research for his work with the Ministry of Justice to improve prison design for health and wellbeing. He is currently leading a grant-funded research project into intergenerational housing.
Rachel O’Brien BA (Hons.) FRSAIndependent consultant on Justice PolicyRachel has over 30 years experience working in policy and communications and for the last 10 years has established a body of work on prison reform. This includes leading on the RSA’s prison agenda including the Prison Learning Network, the Transitions programme (RSA 2011-2015) and the Future Prison Programme (A Matter of Conviction, 2016). With Pamela Dow, she led on the design and development of the New Futures Network, which has been rolled out by the Ministry of Justice within the English and Welsh prison service this year. Rachel worked with Roland on the Transitions programme’s co-design work with HMP Humber (Building a Rehabilitation Culture, 2014) and on Matter’s Wellbeing and Prison Design project (2017). She is commissioning editor of the RSA Journal, works on a pro bono basis with individual prisoners/ex-prisoners and involved in an ESRC project on social enterprise in the English prison system (forthcoming).
A design approach to transforming prison: top-down, middle-out, bottom-upR. O’Brien and R. Karthaus
Abstract— Over the past decade the authors have undertaken applied research aimed at improving conditions and outcomes for those living, working and visiting in prisons in the UK. Top-down governmental policies to transform the prison service have mainly been ineffectual and in some cases counter-productive. The service is characterized by hierarchical organization and the research has applied design thinking at multiple levels to challenge and precipitate change within both the commissioning and operational areas:
• System Design (top-down) - working at national policylevel to advance the rehabilitative role of prison;
• Place-based Design (middle-out) - working with individual prison establishments in different places and contexts to explore what this means on the ground;
• Everyday Design (bottom-up) - working with individualsin the system to reveal their capacity to enable and support change.
Presented at the European Society of Criminologists Annual Conference Eurocrim, Ghent, Belgium, Sept 2019
• Persistently falling crim
e
• Social trend, not result of increasing sentencing
Crime trends
The UK prison population
8 U
K Prison Population Statistics
Source: M
oJ, Offender M
anagement C
aseload Statistics 2010 Tables; Offender M
anagement Statistics
Quarterly, V
arious Years
Notes: D
ata at end of June in 2005, September in 2010 and 2015, and M
arch in 2019. Excludes those w
here sentence length was not recorded.
Prisoners in custody for violence against the person (VA
TP) offences accounted for the highest proportion of prisoners at the end of M
arch 2019 (26%).
Sexual, theft and drug offences each accounted for between 12%
and 18%
of the reason offenders were in prison.
As show
n in the chart below, V
ATP accounted for the largest share of adult
and juvenile offenders in custody. How
ever, a smaller proportion of juvenile
offenders were in prison for sexual offences and a larger proportion w
ere in for drug offences, robbery, and possession of w
eapons.
Source: M
oJ, Offender M
anagement Statistics Q
uarterly, October to D
ecember 2018, table 1.2b
Notes: O
nly includes offenders sentenced to imm
ediate custody. ‘Miscellaneous crim
es…’ =
miscellaneous
crimes against society.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Less than one
year1 - 4 years
Over 4 years
determinate
Indeterm
inateRecall
20052010
20152019
PRISON
POPU
LATION
BY SENTEN
CE LENG
THEngland and W
ales, prisoners sentencedto im
mediate custody
0%10%
20%30%
40%50%
Violence against the personSexual offences
Drug offences
Theft Offences
RobberyM
iscellaneous crimes…
Possession of weapons
Summ
ary Non-M
otoringFraud O
ffencesPublic order offences
Criminal dam
age and arsonSum
mary m
otoringO
ffence not recorded
Adults (18+)
Juveniles (15-17)
VIOLEN
CE AGAIN
ST THE PERSO
N IS TH
E LARGEST O
FFENCE
CATEGO
RYAll prisoners, by age, at M
arch 2019
3 C
omm
ons Library Briefing, 23 July 2019
Sum
mary
This briefing paper explores data on the UK
prison population, including the population size and change over tim
e, the demographic profile of prisoners,
safety in prisons, and the cost per prisoner.
Prisons are a devolved, so UK
prison statistics are published separately for England and W
ales (the Ministry of Justice), Scotland (the Scottish
Governm
ent), and Northern Ireland (the D
epartment of Justice). This briefing
also compares the U
K w
ith other countries.
Weekly prison population data are available for England, W
ales and Scotland and quarterly data are available for N
orthern Ireland. The latest available data show
a curren
t priso
n p
op
ulatio
n o
f app
roxim
ately 92,400, comprising
• 82,676 in England and W
ales1,
• 8,205 in Scotland
2, and •
1,487 in Northern Ireland (these all at the end of June 2019). 3
In addition to these snapshots, all jurisdictions publish the average annual prison population, w
hich was approxim
ately 82,295 in England and Wales in
2018, and 7,464 in Scotland and 1,439 in Northern Ireland for the financial
year 2017/18.
There is a general underlying, increasing trend in the number of people held
in prison. The graph below show
s prison population change relative to 1900 (and relative to 2000 for N
orthern Ireland).
So
urce: M
oJ (England and Wales) O
ffender Managem
ent Statistics Quarterly, various years; Scottish
Governm
ent, Prison statistics and population projections; DoJ (N
orthern Ireland) The Northern Ireland Prison
Population 2017/18.
The prison population of England & W
ales quadrupled in size between 1900
and 2018, with around half of this increase taking place since 1990. The
Scottish prison population almost doubled in size since 1900 and rose 60%
since 1990.
1 M
inistry of Justice Offender M
anagement statistics quarterly: O
ctober to Decem
ber 2018 2 Scottish Prison Service Prison Population 3 D
epartment of Justice W
eekly Situation Reports 2018-19
-100% 0%
+100%
+200%
+300%
+400%
19001920
19401960
19802000
2020
CHAN
GE
IN TH
E PRISON
POPU
LATION
OF G
REAT BRITAIN SIN
CE 1900
England andW
ales
Scotland
Northern Ireland
8 U
K Prison Population Statistics
Source: M
oJ, Offender M
anagement C
aseload Statistics 2010 Tables; Offender M
anagement Statistics
Quarterly, V
arious Years
Notes: D
ata at end of June in 2005, September in 2010 and 2015, and M
arch in 2019. Excludes those w
here sentence length was not recorded.
Prisoners in custody for violence against the person (VA
TP) offences accounted for the highest proportion of prisoners at the end of M
arch 2019 (26%).
Sexual, theft and drug offences each accounted for between 12%
and 18%
of the reason offenders were in prison.
As show
n in the chart below, V
ATP accounted for the largest share of adult
and juvenile offenders in custody. How
ever, a smaller proportion of juvenile
offenders were in prison for sexual offences and a larger proportion w
ere in for drug offences, robbery, and possession of w
eapons.
Source: M
oJ, Offender M
anagement Statistics Q
uarterly, October to D
ecember 2018, table 1.2b
Notes: O
nly includes offenders sentenced to imm
ediate custody. ‘Miscellaneous crim
es…’ =
miscellaneous
crimes against society.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Less than one
year1 - 4 years
Over 4 years
determinate
Indeterm
inateRecall
20052010
20152019
PRISON
POPU
LATION
BY SENTEN
CE LENG
THEngland and W
ales, prisoners sentencedto im
mediate custody
0%10%
20%30%
40%50%
Violence against the personSexual offences
Drug offences
Theft Offences
RobberyM
iscellaneous crimes…
Possession of weapons
Summ
ary Non-M
otoringFraud O
ffencesPublic order offences
Criminal dam
age and arsonSum
mary m
otoringO
ffence not recorded
Adults (18+)
Juveniles (15-17)
VIOLEN
CE AGAIN
ST THE PERSO
N IS TH
E LARGEST O
FFENCE
CATEGO
RYAll prisoners, by age, at M
arch 2019
• Dram
atic rise in prison population
• Highest proportion in
Western Europe
A design approach to transforming prison:
top-down, m
iddle-out, bottom-up
Rachel O’Brien
Justice and prisons consultant
Roland KarthausD
irector, Matter Architecture & Senior Lecturer, the U
niversity of East London
• Highly centralised system
• Her M
ajesty’s Prison and Probation Service (H
MPPS) sits w
ithin the Ministry
of Justice
• There have been eight Secretaries of State for Justice since 2009, five since 2015, w
hile the head of HM
PPS has changed once in the last 10 years.
04/09/2019S
ecretary of State for Justice - W
ikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/w
iki/Secretary_of_S
tate_for_Justice2/3
p://ww
w.justice.gov.uk)
For Lord Chancellors before 2003, see List of Lord C
hancellors and LordK
eepers
For Secretaries between 2003 and 2007, see Secretary of State for C
onstitutional Affairs
Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor
Labour
C
onservative
PortraitN
ame
Honorifics &
Constituency
Term of office
PoliticalParty
Governm
ent
The Right H
onourableC
harlie FalconerThe Lord Falconer of
ThorotonP
C Q
C(born 1951)
9 May
200727 June2007
LabourB
lair II & III
The Right H
onourableJack Straw
[2]
MP
for Blackburn
(born 1946)
28 June2007
11 May
2010Labour
Brow
n
The Right H
onourableK
enneth Clarke
QC
MP
for Rushcliffe
(born 1940)
12 May
2010
4S
eptember
2012C
onservative
Cam
eron–Clegg
(Con.-L.D
.)The R
ight Honourable
Chris G
raylingM
P for E
psom and E
well
(born 1962)
4S
eptember
20129 M
ay2015
Conservative
The Right H
onourableM
ichael Gove
MP
for Surrey H
eath(born 1967)
9 May
201514 July2016
Conservative
Cam
eron II
The Right H
onourableLiz Truss
MP
for South W
est Norfolk
(born 1975)
14 July2016
11 June2017
Conservative
May I
The Right H
onourableD
avid LidingtonC
BE
[3]
MP
for Aylesbury(born 1956)
11 June2017
8 January2018
Conservative
May II
The Right H
onourableD
avid Gauke
MP
for South W
estH
ertfordshire(born 1971)
8 January2018
24 July2019
Conservative
The Right H
onourableR
obert Buckland
QC
MP
for South S
windon
(born 1968)
24 July2019
Incumbent
Conservative
Johnson
Centralisation and leadership?
Prison reform: creating a self-im
proving system?
• Consensus for necessary changes:
• Tackle overcrowding
• Reduce the prison population• Im
prove staff to prisoner ratios• Invest in com
munity alternatives and
prevention
but not sufficient
Our take:
Simplifying system
s and com
plicating content
• Devolving pow
er • Rethinking leadership and skills required• C
hanging comm
issioning (including of buildings)
• Taking an asset-based approach• Engaging w
ider, local stakeholders• C
hanging what w
e measure
Worth pursuing even w
hilst necessary changes are not m
ade
• Nearly half of adults are reconvicted
of another offence within one year of
release from prison
• Self-inflicted deaths are six times
more likely in prison than the general
population.
• Assaults on staff have tripled in recent years
• Drug m
isuse is increasing after years of decline.
• Just two in five prisons (43%
) received a positive rating from
inspectors in 2017–18 for purposeful activity w
ork.
Governm
ent policy
- Punishment
- Protection of the public
- Rehabilitation
HM
Inspector of Prisons ‘healthy prison’ tests
- Safety
- Respect
- Purposeful activity
- Rehabilitation
Stated aims vs reality
• Multi/inter-disciplinary
• Applied with practitioners
• Facilitators/convenors of change• Proposition through dem
onstration
Institutional:
HM
P Hum
ber
Hyde Bank YO
I
Social enterprise and the Road Ahead
New
Futures Netw
ork
Policy impact:
Wellbeing in prison design
The Future Prison
Justice 2030
Methodology and m
ethods: research through action
Our projects and initiatives:
Collaborative design process with over
200 stakeholder groups, including: Prison m
anagement, officers and prisoners, local
comm
unity, employers, N
ational, regional and local authorities, etc.
Emergent social enterprise m
odel making use
of latent assets
Co-designLand and com
munity
as asset-base for rehabilitation culture
HM
P Hum
berPolicySuite of docum
ents:
Policy: Building a rehabilitation culturew
ith supporting policy papers
Plan: Masterplan for site, w
ith illustrated m
ethodology for policy
Available atw
ww
.matterarchitecture.uk/research/
• Fieldwork in H
MP Berw
yn
• Structured user interviews (officers,
staff, prisoners
• Online survey - 305 responses
• Design factors affecting health and
wellbeing
• Acoustics
• Ability to move around
• Heating and ventilation
Fieldwork
Wellbeing in prison design
Evidence to improve design of new
prisons
Intervening meanw
hile
Symplifying the system
, complexifying the content
Methodology and m
ethods: research through action
Future work: Justice 2030
System design (top-down)
Place-based design (middle-out)
Evidenced-based vision of justice and consistent
political leadership
Reduce the prison populationIm
prove staffingInvest in alternatives &
preventionC
hange comm
issioningC
onsult with prison users
Support good practice
Reaching outD
elegated decision-making
Integrating with local services,
economies and stakeholders
Asset-based approachSharing know
ledgeM
onitoring
Every day design (bottom-up)
Co-design solutions w
ith staff and prisoners
Source local initiativesSw
eat the small stuff
Find the 'pinch points'
supportingintelligence
devolving
delivering
enablingcreating change
Framew
ork
Spring 20149
RSA
TR
AN
SIT
ION
S EV
ER
TH
OR
PE . R
EP
OR
T 1: AN
ALY
SIS. J
ULY 20
13
RO
LAN
D KA
RT
HA
US A
RC
HIT
EC
T35
Key O
pp
ortunities
INIT
IAL R
ES
PO
NS
ES
The greatest p
otential is fo
r the who
le of the site,
outsid
e of the p
rison w
alls and resid
ential plo
ts to
be co
nsidered
for the Transitio
ns pro
ject. This wo
uld
mo
st likely require a transfer o
f the land o
r long
leaseho
ld to
som
e form
of o
rganisatio
n with a rem
it to
manag
e the land fo
r Transitions o
bjectives. There
is likely to b
e a technical and leg
al pro
cess to arrive
at this po
int, which w
ill need to
carefully consid
er the o
peratio
nal and security req
uirements o
f the future co
nsolid
ated p
rison, as w
ell as being
sensitive to
local resid
ents. The yellow area rig
ht indicates this
po
tential in outline o
nly and d
etails of land
ownership
w
ill be req
uired as a starting
po
int to refine any such
bo
undary.
There is great p
otential fo
r the pro
ject to create a new
‘hub
’ which b
rings to
gether the to
urism and
nature p
otential, w
ith the o�
ender rehab
ilitation services.
Much w
ork is still req
uired to
develo
p a p
rog
ramm
e o
f functions and
a business p
lan, but to
meet the
Transitions o
bjectives, w
ill mo
st likely require m
any d
i�erent kind
s of activities and
so a central ‘hub
’ will
help to
weld
these functions to
gether and
create a co
herent sense of p
lace. Evertho
rpe H
all provid
es an im
po
rtant landm
ark for this hub
, which m
ay be an
external space, w
ith build
lings accessed
from
it, rather than necessarily b
eing a b
uilding
itself.
In terms o
f access, it seems likely there w
ill need to
b
e an alternative app
roach to
Beck R
oad
. There is a p
ossib
le op
po
rtunity to b
uild a new
road
around
the w
estern edg
e of the W
old
s current perim
eter. This m
ay require so
me lo
ss of w
oo
dland
, which sho
uld b
e m
itigated
by new p
lanting. A
lternatively, or as w
ell as, access sho
uld b
e po
ssible via M
ires Lane, thoug
h the access fro
m the m
ain road
, Sand
Lane, is som
ewhat
remo
te. There are also p
ossib
le access routes alo
ng
the southern p
erimeter o
f HM
P E
verthorp
e and
from
the A63 via the service statio
n site, thoug
h this w
ould
require 3rd
party land
. Further w
ork sho
uld b
e und
ertaken to exp
lore these o
ptio
ns once a clearer
brief has b
een develo
ped
. Walking
/ cycling trails
could
be laid
out to
explo
re the beck and
wo
od
lands
and co
nnect with the w
ider netw
orks and
natural assets.
So
me fo
rm o
f com
munity transp
ort p
rovision w
ill be
essential to the success o
f any pro
ject on this site.
sand lane
Co
nnection to
north cave
and w
etlands
Co
nnection to
south
cave and the W
old
s Way
Natio
nal Trail
Co
nnection to
long
-d
istance cycle route
Co
nnection to
north cave,
wetland
s and d
isused
railway
‘Hub
’
greenho
uses
walking
/ cycling trails
transitions
facilities
sustainable land
m
anagem
ent
connectio
n to ho
tel
Co
nnection to
foo
tpaths
car park m
ay be includ
edif p
rison entrance m
oved
Initial response to the site conditions
Connected hub to release assetsLocally connected hub on M
inistry land, adjacent to prison
Design recom
mendations
12
34
56
78
910
1112
1314
1516
www.matterarchitecture.uk/research
A design approach to transforming prison: top-down, middle-out, bottom-upR. Karthaus and R. O’Brien, September 2019(slides on accompanying sheet shown in brackets)
ContextThe UK has seen a drastic rise in the use of incarceration over the last 10 years (2) with a doubling of the population over the last 30 years. There has been a decrease in use of custody for children and young people and an increase of those serving long sentences. Yet about one in every two people who go to prison go for under 6 months. If we look forward, the current political leadership looks set to see further rises, cancelling plans to address short-term sentences with greater emphasis on community alternatives and promising sentence reform, which would see the end of ‘good behaviour’ tariffs for those who have committed serious violent offences.Over the same period, the UK has seen a persistent trend of falling crime (3), not as some would have it, linked to the increasing prison population, but a wider social trend. Within that trend has been localized increases in violent crime, which continues to drive public perception that crime is a problem needing tough justice.There is a contradiction at the heart of the current approach to prison and probation. (4) On the one hand we have seen a fairly consistent emphasis on rehabilitation over the last five years (this has not always been the case). But on the other we have seen almost continuously changing political leadership, which has disrupted progress. There has been little change of civil service leadership at HMPPS, which – we would argue – has had a similar effect but for the opposite reason of inertia. There has also been a significant reduction in prison staffing levels since 2013 and a loss of many experienced officers and a failed restructuring of probation services which split the service in two (privatizing the service for those considered lower risk, adding some 50,000 people on licence post-custody while underfunding and neglecting ‘through the gate’ support).The purposes of prisonDespite changes in leadership there is a broad consensus that prison has three primary functions. (5) In the words of our last Justice Secretary:“First, protection of the public – prison protects the public from the most dangerous and violent individuals. Second, punishment – prison deprives offenders of their liberty and certain freedoms enjoyed by the rest of society and acts as a deterrent. It is not the only sanction available, but it is an important one. And third, rehabilitation – prison provides offenders with the opportunity to reflect on, and take responsibility for, their crimes and prepare them for a law-abiding life when they are released.”Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons, now has the ability to deliver urgent notifications if they identify significant concerns, works against four ‘healthy prison’ tests:• Safety: Prisoners, particularly the most vulnerable, are
held safely.• Respect (Care for YOIs): Prisoners are treated with
respect for their human dignity.• Purposeful activity: Prisoners are able, and expected,
to engage in activity that is likely to benefit them.• Rehabilitation: Prisoners are supported to maintain
and develop release planning relationships with their family and friends. Prisoners are helped to reduce their likelihood of reoffending
The need for reformAll the current indicators are that rehabilitation, safety and purposeful activity are not being delivered and that these undermine the protection of the public. A critical argument is that the absolute prioritization of punishment (which should be the sentence and not the prison) whilst cutting resources is the root cause of current failings. As there is a tension in government policy, so there is within the reform movement in the UK (6). On the one hand, there is a view that prison can never succeed in its rehabilitative function. That what is needed is:• To reduce the prison population, particularly the
number of people serving short sentences, investing in effective community alternatives.
• To improve the ratio of staff to prisoners and improve training, support and work conditions.
• To change the debate about crime and punishment within the UK (which is seen as being ill-informed and punitive compared to some other countries)
We agree with all of the above. However, it would be wrong to suggest that the UK prison system was functioning well before the recent cuts and it would be a mistake to think that it does not need to learn some of the lessons and adopt some of the thinking of other public services. In the face of some of the problems we see now, we would argue that if we are to create a self improving system, change is needed at all levels that: • Devolves power to Prison Governors• Reconstitutes the leadership model and reconsiders
skills needed in the workforce.• Changes commissioning (including of buildings) to
effectively support rehabilitation.• Takes an asset-based approach to infrastructure,
communities and individuals.• Simplifies systems and complicates content to create
a more human scale (and humane) system.• Engages prisoners, staff and the community in
contextual analysis and in shaping reform.• Measures wellbeing and public attitudes as well as
reoffending.Our argument is that we need to see prison reform as an active process at all levels. Each level has a role to play and the system needs to facilitate and empower each of those roles at every level (7)Methodology and case studiesThis starts with us working not just bottom up but in partnership with those who have a range of expertise to bring to the table. (8-16) We are not academics but work in interdisciplinary teams ensuring we base our work on the best evidence available and embed evaluation and impact models. We are not practitioners but work with those who are, drawing on their expertise and experience. We are not service users but work with those who have first hand experience in co-designing new approaches. We are unapologetic in insisting that the expertise and contextual considerations are not confined to us. Part of the reason that people feel disempowered is that decisions are not only made centrally but without any explanation or consideration of local/institutional context.
www.matterarchitecture.uk/research
RSA Transitions: building a rehabilitation culture (2014) was a grant-funded research and development project from 2010 - 2015. It began with a desire to be able to think creatively and ambitiously about the UK prison system at a time when rehabilitation was not high on the policy agena. Its starting point was to match the contemporary state of prisons with the broader consensus about their purposes: to protect the public, to punish and to rehabilitate. Our aim was to begin to close the gap between purpose and reality in a short vision of an asset-based approach, embedded in locality.Using this as a basis for more detailed work, we secured funding to undertake a pilot feasibility study working on site with a prison in East Yorkshire. The focus was on how 45-acres of unused Ministry of Justice land around the prison could be turned into a ‘transition’ space that supported rehabilitation while benefiting staff and the local community. This involved becoming embedded within the prison (a newly merged male ‘resettlement’ establishment with capacity to hold 1200) and locality, working across three strands of work:Top-downContextual analysis, engaging with policy makers and an understanding of the (changing) commissioning frameworks around justice services. This both gave the project credibility and a way of ensuring stakeholders were aware of context, as well as shaping research inputs and our final communication outputs. Our aim was to both influence national policy and identify what could be achieved locally in the meantime.Middle-outA significant part of our work involved mapping the local and regional stakeholders within this field, focusing on the kinds of innovations that would both benefit a more integrated approach and help to meet aims and performance targets. For example, our advisory board included the Prison Governor, representatives of the Police and Crime Commissioner’s office and the local authority substance misuse commissioner. Much of our work involved engaging with key agencies such as the Local Enterprise Partnership, NGOs and community. Bottom-upFrom the outset, the project engaged with frontline staff and prisoners to collaboratively explore the potential of the site for physical development and a new prisoner-led consultation forum was established to provide a platform for co-designing solutions. This approach was intended to demonstrate the latent potential of existing assets: both the land/buildings and the people.OutcomeWhile Transitions successfully achieved buy-in of local stakeholders and a legacy in terms of innovations still in place, a change of Governor resulted in a diminished interest. However, the project did influence the broader policy debate, particularly around employment and social enterprise and has shaped Turnaround, a project in Northern Ireland, which is taking a very similar approach.
Wellbeing in prison design (2017) was a grant funded research and development project undertaken in partnership with the Ministry of Justice Prison Estate Transformation Programme team (PETP), commissioners of new prisons to replace existing outdated facilities. Following 2015, the rehabilitation role of prison had risen up the policy agenda and was a key priority for the PETP. We assembled a small team, including an environmental psychologist, to develop practically applicable design guidance based in evidence. The aim was to adjust existing prison design practices according to parameters affecting the health and wellbeing of all prison users. The logical argument was that healthier staff, prisoners and visitors would enable two important pathways to resettlement: through more effective engagement with work, training and support programmes in prison; and through greater self-efficacy, independence and health on release. Our work followed the same three strands:Top-downWorking with PETP to interrogate existing design and commissioning practices and to introduce ‘disruptive’ thinking into the process. A key finding was that the commissioning process itself was linear, hierarchical and lacking critical intelligence from post-occupancy evaluation. Whilst operational expertise was applied at the early stages of the process, later decision-making was heavily weighted to reducing construction cost risk without a means to evaluate the significant potential resulting operational costs. Whilst PETP commissioners were committed to innovation through learning, the overall system of commissioning, procuring and operating new prisons did little to enable such learning. Middle-outWorking alongside the PETP’s professional consultant team and operational experts, we were able to integrate evidence into the design process for two new prisons to stimulate original thinking and generate new design responses The MOJ’s prison design standards were used as a starting point for interrogating both the explicit and ulterior motives for individual standards and to rebalance them towards supporting health and wellbeing. Bottom-upWe undertook fieldwork in HMP Berwyn, a new prison at the time and the UK’s largest with capacity for over 2,000 prisoners. We carried out structured interviews and ‘walking audits’ with staff and prisoners which in turn informed an online interview that was distributed to the whole prison population. 305 completed responses were received and analysed which clearly identified consensus on key areas of current prison design impacting on health and wellbeing. These were used to inform the design guidance measures. OutcomeAs the new buildings are not yet built, we do not know the final influence on the building designs. The procurement process tends to heavily prioritise construction cost risk over long-term costs and so we are not optimistic. One of our recommendations was that the commissioning process itself needed improvements in order to deliver on its objectives, including: setting up an independent design review for prisons and; systematising the user-based research we conducted as part of a learning commissioning culture. In this respect the project was unsuccessful, but it has precipitated great interest nationally and internationally and demonstrated the practical application of evidence in design.
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Case studies available to download at https://www.matterarchitecture.uk/research