Designing the Correctional Landscape: An Invitation to Landscape Architecture Professionals

Abstract

The United States currently incarcerates more than two million men and women, the majority of whom struggle with poor mental health, substance abuse, and limited job prospects. Research suggests that access to natural environments improves personal and social well-being. Well-designed and well-built correctional landscapes have the potential to positively influence the lives of incarcerated people by improving their mental health and reentry outcomes and by reducing stress and fatigue among staff. This cannot happen without the active and committed involvement of landscape architects with the expertise to design environments that enhance the well-being of those who live and work in correctional facilities. We invite landscape architecture professionals to use their expertise to enhance and transform the correctional landscape, and we offer seven actions to facilitate such involvement. These actions emerged from lessons learned through three successful design-build projects inside Iowa’s only women’s state prison.