A visit to the Las Colinas Detention and Re-Entry Facility in San Diego County, California will make you wonder if you are actually touring a women's prison or a modern college campus. This is a clear illustration of the shift that the American criminal justice science is undergoing and its recognition that a non- institutionally built environment can provide relevant psychological benefits for both the inmates and the staff .Jane mountain of Inhabitat wrote that with higher- education campuses as inspiration, the new design of KMD Architects has replaced the already dreary 1960s facility in the same location. "The intent was to replicate, as much as possible, the demands and responsibilities [inmates] would face out in the community within this particular facility," said Jim Mueller, the principal in charge of the project at KMD Architects.
Windows that are now floor to ceiling and wide open spaces characterize the new detention facility. The former stainless steel furniture has been replaced by brightly colored sofas, lime green molded plastic chairs and pale wooden sleeping bunks. In fact, the dining hall "wouldn't be out of place at the offices of Google or Yahoo", Mountain describes.
The former cells have been switched to low-security inmates sleep open dorm-style rooms with low walls as division. The built-in beds come with IKEA-style under-bed storage drawers with each inmate getting her own small desk. Outside the buildings, the "lawns sweep out sweep out from stylish hard-paved patios, and the fronds of palm trees wave overhead."
The detention serves low-security, medium-security, and high-security inmates in three types of housing. Initially, the women are placed according to their risk levels and through the different programs, they can move to less secure levels depending on their behaviour.
The various services are housed in separate buildings. Deputies escort the inmates as they move between the recreation and education facility, the medical building and the dining hall. After a year of operation, Las Colinas 'first phase has earned a positive feedback from the inmates and staff alike.
