A LIGHT OF HOPE FOR JUVENILE JUSTICE
Ever since governments began incarcerating people, there have been competing theories about its purpose. Is prison intended to punish the guilty, protect the innocent, rehabilitate the lawbreaker, or some combination thereof? In the modern era, prisons run the gamut from grim, super-max fortresses to minimum-security lockups. But in the end, what law enforcement, justice departments, and government planners agree upon is the need for correctional facilities that fit into their communities, provide safe conditions for workers inside, and perhaps most importantly, increase the likelihood that inmates, once released, will not return.
Traditional prisons supervise their charges from a distance, using cameras, a control room and archetypical guard towers. Today's trend, wherever possible, is toward direct supervision and normative design: place officers into detainee housing areas that are designed to appear as "normal" as possible, thereby minimizing violent acts and enhancing rehabilitation. Since the 1960s, Ken Ricci of RicciGreene Associates (RGA) has advocated for this more humane strategy, and evidence suggests that it is working. Ricci believes that prisons should not be dangerous nightmares to live in; for an American, Ricci believes, "the deprivation of freedom is punishment enough." In fact, RGA has made direct-supervision design a specialty that may be particularly useful for juvenile offenders and featured it in the firm's recently completed 70,000-square-foot Union County Juvenile Detention Center in Linden, New Jersey.
Winner of a merit award from the AIA's New Jersey chapter, the center is "a 'thin' building, only one room deep," Ricci explains, "that wraps around a one-acre, outdoor courtyard." Every housing unit includes a central dayroom with a lot of glass and outside views, and a designated recreation area. With room for 80 boys and girls, the center also has classrooms and resource centers and, at its core, a full gymnasium with translucent Kalwall Wall System on all sides. It is known that daylighting has positive effects on the incarcerated.
And highly insulating Kalwall reduces the need for and cost of heating and cooling, as it keeps extreme temperatures outside. The controlled natural daylight Kalwall brings into the space also cuts down on the amount of electricity needed for artificial lighting. The even, shadowless light is perfect for athletic facilities, as it makes it easier, for example, for players to see and control a basketball. In addition, Kalwall's sound-dampening properties come in handy at the detention center. "When you reduce the decibel level," says Ricci, "people's adrenaline levels go down, including the staff."
Interestingly, in studies of school settings, students were found to perform better and learn as much as 25 percent faster in classrooms with a greater abundance of natural light. Causes include mood enhancement for students as well as teachers, sharpened focus and memory, and better synchronicity with the human body's circadian rhythms, all brought on by introducing controlled, natural daylight into a school's interior. There is even anecdotal evidence to suggest that students in a naturally lit school take better care of it, perhaps out of a sense of school pride. It's a small leap, then, to see how youthful offenders at Union County Juvenile Detention Center would benefit as well from Kalwall's natural daylight.
Union County Juvenile Detention Center
Linden, NJ
Architect: RicciGreene Associates
Photos: Mikiko Kikuyama Photography
Wall: 3,485 square feet
U-value: 0.23 Btu/hr/ft²/°F (1.3 W/m²K) – Thermally broken
Light Transmission: 20%
Exterior Color: Crystal
Interior Color: White
For more information, contact:
Bruce Keller
Kalwall Corporation 603-627-3861 (800-258-9777 N. America)
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