Case Spotlight: Catalonia
Department of Justice of the Government of Catalonia
Penitentiary facilities, as instruments of social policy and general public service, must take into account a series of demographic and geographical characteristics, such as the availability of land, regional balance, and public opinion.
It is essential to ensure the prison facilities’ accessibility to judicial authorities, the urban centres where the families of incarcerated individuals reside, robust networks of transport, communications, and utility services. This urban location is also crucial for open prisons, to support the reintegration of individuals into the community.
The architectural design of prison infrastructures itself shapes the prison environment where incarcerated persons and staff interact continuously, and it can significantly influence behaviours and interactions.
Thus, the significant innovation in the construction of new penitentiary centres lies in designing prisons based on a different model, emphasising the use of information technology to allow professionals to focus on tasks with added value. The Penitentiary Facilities Plan 2004-2010 enabled the closure of outdated centres and the expansion of capacity with newly built facilities under the functional CP500 program, which facilitates a “human” scale in creating a new culture and organisational climate.
This new approach involves architectural designs with numerous units of relatively small dimensions, fostering close and normalised coexistence. These units include spaces for activities within each living area, along with centralised sports, cultural, and educational facilities, workshop spaces accommodating up to 70% of the prison population, and classrooms for vocational training.
The architectural designs aim for more open and well-lit spaces, organised to house significantly smaller groups of residents. This reduces environmental and physical pressures, allowing both residents and professionals to coexist with less tension. The buildings are differentiated by the activities shaping daily life within the centre. These new facilities are conceived as small cities, with streets, walkways, and a central plaza, enabling outdoor activities and fostering social interaction. The concept is based on organising activities along a central axis or “main street” – abundant in vegetation and generously wide – that runs longitudinally through the site, serving as a main access, and a space for interaction.
The Catalan penitentiary system faces several future challenges: integrating technology to optimise movement and activities for both residents and professionals, adapting spaces and procedures to incorporate a gender perspective that ensures equality and fairness, and going beyond current sustainability standards with zero-consumption and energy-saving practices.
Nevertheless, the synthesis of forty years of experience in the Catalan penitentiary system and its major challenge for the future is the construction of a new women’s prison. This facility will be exclusively for women, designed with a feminist perspective to provide more comprehensive and appropriate responses to the needs of both incarcerated women and female staff.
Incorporating a gender perspective into the overall design of penitentiary spaces is intended to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of social reintegration processes pursued by the organisation.
Architecture, with its ability to support the functionality of spaces, can play a transformative role in this new model. Key innovations include tailored security measures, alternative spaces for isolation, minimising institutional impact, integrating new technologies into daily life, strengthening family ties, providing comprehensive healthcare, and creating rich spaces for participation and coexistence.
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