The Big House...
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Nice work Ross, and great to see you back posting work here!
With all of the rendering apps and npr techniques around - it is refreshing to see some native su output again. As far as the subject matter goes - aesthetics isn't where they spend the money in these types of facilities. Priorities have changed over the years as I have seen quite a few old jails that had some wonderfull detail, as they typically were in town in proximity of the courthouse!
How are you finding the competition in Canada for correctional work Ross? Seems like everybody here is now an expert, as we often compete (NE-US) with 10-15 firms for projects that typically only had the 3-5 bigger players involved before.
Bytor
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Very nice work! I love seeing what can be done with native SU output...it's very encouraging!
My wife will enjoy seeing these pics. She works in a correctional facility that is very far from being as nice as this one...
They don't even have a sauna or sweat lodge
Robert
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Ross,
The outdoor area looks a little bleak. Shouldn't the prisoners be kept busy. How about a few glass houses and a large vegetable patch so that they can grow their own food. This would be good therapy, and after all, the devil makes work for idle hands. How many prisoners will the building house? I assume that the prisoners will have committed relatively minor crimes, and so are there for only a short period (a few months?)
Regards,
Bob -
Mmmmmm .... a sweat lodge! ... now that's a thought. Also, now that I am rolling my own ciggies, chucking the tobacco on a fire would go down a treat. I wonder if there are any portable ones on the market, big enough for 3 smokers and a shaman
And I found one that would look nice in the garden here, http://barrelsauna.com/advantages.htmlNice clean native SU work Ross, as per usual
Also glad to hear that we are delving into other types of design.Mike
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Thanks for the texture, Ross.
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@watkins said:
Ross,
The outdoor area looks a little bleak. Shouldn't the prisoners be kept busy. How about a few glass houses and a large vegetable patch so that they can grow their own food. This would be good therapy, and after all, the devil makes work for idle hands. How many prisoners will the building house? I assume that the prisoners will have committed relatively minor crimes, and so are there for only a short period (a few months?)
Regards,
BobThe design is for a Provincially operated facility. By agreement with our Federal Government the Provinces have to house those sentenced up to "two years less a day". The profile of offenders includes those who have done violent crimes, rape, extortion, robbery, sex offenders, drunk drivers, and white-collar offences like fraud, information theft etc. Small jails like this may also have to house those remanded to custody but not yet sentenced. They can include axe murders, cop killers or any other kind of offender who is likely to be convicted and put away for years. Although such facilities also house those who get a month for refusing breathalyzer etc. the facilities can't really be thought of as low or medium security. (The public typically thinks they are because of the two-years-less-a-day thing but they really aren't).
The reality is that offenders in an institution like this only are let outdoors for one hour per day. They do that in small numbers (say up to 15 at a time) in a secure exercise yard -- in this case featuring 23 foot high solid walls. The standards are that each offender gets 3 square feet of window or access to the equivalent amount of daylight. Those windows typically have no opening more than five inches wide. While it might be nice to think offenders can go outside and garden the reality is they don't. With costs to incarcerate being what they are, Provinces have to house more and more offenders on less money. The biggest cost is staffing. They just can't afford the staffing resources needed to supervise taking the offenders out of the secure building. Note that facilities like this don't have big perimeter security fencing, watch towers etc. There are fences but they are primarily intended to keep the public away and avoid drug drops etc. Our Provincial jails have no weapons --- correctional workers do not carry guns; there are none in the entire facility.
So if you find yourself incarcerated in one of our jails don't expect you'll be out gardening, getting a university degree, or learning a trade. You'll spend countless hours playing cards and watching TV with people you'd likely rather not spend any time with and can't get away from. You'll eat whatever food they give you and have a shower when they tell you to. You'll live by schedule with practically no personal freedom of choice. If you are lucky you'll have access to some paperback books - romance novels and the like. If you know people who'll accept your collect calls you can use a phone but your call is monitored and you get no privacy. Once a week you might get a visitor but in many facilities your visit will be secure -- looking at each other through bullet resistant glass and talking on a monitored handset. You won't get out for the birth of your child, death of a family member or for any other reason except a medical emergency. Frankly it will really suck and yet your family & friends will think it is a country club where you are babied. A large percentage of the public think offenders should have to do hard labour like digging useless holes.
I hope none of us end up in jail.
Regards, Ross
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These "two years less a day" kind of convicts can even go out to the town to work here (if they get a job of course). Our "County Jail" is located inside the historic town right next to the old County Council and a secondary school (the used to be seminary).
Of course, there are fences (medieval town walls) and such and I would not like to be there myself.
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Dear Ross,
Thank you for the very detailed reply. You obviously know jail design very well, and I stand corrected, although hopefully never in a correctional institution. I have never thought that prisoners should do useless work, but for certain categories of prisoner (white collar fraud, drunk drivers etc) where the risk of outdoor work is low, then farming and market gardening makes sense, if only to reduce the running costs of prisons. Perhaps they should all be made to wear pink.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/oct/11/usa.danglaister
Kind regards,
Bob -
Bob - I didn't mean to imply that outdoor programs like you suggested are not desired. Practically everyone involved in Corrections thinks there needs to be more useful programs for the offenders. The problem really is funding. With more people being incarcerated the costs of warehousing them goes up but the budgets never keep up -- and programs suffer. Most people would rather spend money on schools, roads, or hospitals -- anything but the penal system.
Interestingly you mention the idea of offenders growing crops to reduce costs. The problem is those that currently supply food to the system cry foul. Same if you have prisoners make licence plates -- private enterprise cry foul claiming it is unfair to for-profit business.
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Dear Ross,
With reference to the last point (free enterprise), perhaps the way round that is to put the running of the prison farm and market gardening out to tender. I specifically mentioning gardening as there are organisations in the UK that seek to help people with mental health issues through gardening. It seems to be quite effective. Working the soil and growing your own vegetables can be very therapeutic.
Good luck with the designs.
Regards,
Bob
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