Efforts to reduce the correction population have taken many forms across the United States, with the redesign of correctional edifices being met with mixed support from stakeholders. Building from the advances of the new-generation facility design, this piece outlines how the “next” generation of facility design can serve as one of many strategies to reduce the United States’s heavy reliance on the carceral system. Specifically, the redesign of facilities should include considerations of placial justice. That is, how the architectural construction of a correctional facility can promote the experience and perception of just and fair treatment for inmates and staff alike. This article proposes the tenants of an open, transparent, and inclusive (OTI) design to enhance placial justice in correctional buildings and with it increase correctional legitimacy and fortify the rehabilitative function of the institution. Discussions also include how the redesign of correctional facilities fit within the larger discourse on correctional humanism.

Facilities are important aspects of rehabilitative treatment. To fully understand the impact of a facility on the effectiveness of treatment, the direct perspectives of service providers are critical. We examine four autoethnographic accounts from correctional service providers to determine the role of the facility in their provision of care and organize these into considerations of three central aspects of correctional architecture—space, layout, and setting (SLS)—which play an important role in the efficacy of rehabilitative services. We conclude by proposing how research may advance in this area, especially through the use of practitioner accounts.

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