In side out: Proposing an alternative, support based approach to women's incarceration in Aotearoa
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Authors
MCallum, Narelle Kay-Douglas
Author ORCID Profiles (clickable)
Degree
Master of Architecture (Professional)
Grantor
Unitec, Te Pūkenga – New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology
Date
2024
Supervisors
O'Connell, Ainsley
Pretty, Annabel
Pretty, Annabel
Type
Masters Thesis
Ngā Upoko Tukutuku (Māori subject headings)
Keyword
Ōtāhuhu (Auckland, N.Z.)
Auckland (N.Z.)
Aotearoa
New Zealand
women prisoners
Māori prisoners
prisoners
rehabilitation centre design
architecture for rehabilitation of prisoners
rehabilitation
recidivism
biophilic design
Te Aranga Design Principles
Auckland (N.Z.)
Aotearoa
New Zealand
women prisoners
Māori prisoners
prisoners
rehabilitation centre design
architecture for rehabilitation of prisoners
rehabilitation
recidivism
biophilic design
Te Aranga Design Principles
ANZSRC Field of Research Code (2020)
Citation
MCallum, N. K.-D. (2024) In side out: Proposing an alternative, support based approach to women's incarceration in Aotearoa (Unpublished document submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture (Professional)). Unitec, Te Pūkenga - New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology https://hdl.handle.net/10652/6649
Abstract
RESEARCH QUESTION
How can Aotearoa’s correctional facility typologies be revised to positively support women and improve their long term outcomes?
ABSTRACT
Our women’s prison system is failing both prisoners and the public alike. The recidivism rate for female offenders in Aotearoa is 33 percent; this rate increases to 48 percent for those who are re-incarcerated. The more times someone has been to prison, the more likely they are to return. While women make up just six point four percent of Aotearoa’s prisons, 66 percent of those women are Māori, highlighting the significant disadvantage that the judicial system inflicts on our indigenous population. The intergenerational damage caused by incarceration means the problem of prison is self-perpetuating.
Crime impacts the broader population at many levels. While some are unfortunate enough to be directly harmed by crime, everybody pays for it in the reduction of public spending that would otherwise be available for different public sector services. Incarceration is expensive. According to the Department of Corrections 2023 Annual Report, the Department’s total operating expenditure for the 2022-2023 financial year was two billion dollars. The average daily cost per convicted prisoner was $555 and per remand prisoner $452; in contrast, the daily cost per person serving a community sentence was $72.
It is in the public interest to find a better way to address crime than incarceration. The invisibility of women’s prisons and the cost to facilitate them is intrinsically linked to society’s willingness to support custodial sentences and tough-on-crime politics despite any evidence that this approach is effective. Women, in particular, are more adversely affected by the blunt correctional tools of incarceration and solitary confinement. The Department of Justice’s statistics reflect the success of community based rehabilitation programs over incarceration-based sentencing. Most notably, the 2022 community-based Women’s Short Rehabilitation Programme substantially reduced recidivism rates of all sentence types. The issue identified in this research is the need for more community based facilities available to run support programs, especially for women experiencing housing insecurity.
There is a clear gap between the extremity of forensic healthcare facilities and prison versus community sentencing. Prison provides on-site skills based training and temporary relief from financial pressures but lacks fundamental emotional empathy, social connection, and real-life context. Community sentencing provides home context but can exasperate financial pressures and does not provide consistent therapeutic support programs. This project seeks to discover a place in between the damaging environments of incarceration and the unsupported space of community sentences. A safe space where therapeutic support can lead toward restorative justice outcomes.
Aided by precedents and trauma-informed design approaches, the project design outcome seeks to define what a supportive justice community architecture may look like. The architecture of incarceration is counter-intuitive to fostering communities; instead, it removes people from neighbourhoods. The architecture of progressive mental health institutions assists in the context of applying trauma-informed design principles, but the buildings do not mimic domestic life; the architecture still contains and controls. The scale, spatial planning principles, and intent of Papakāinga and Co-housing developments provide the best precedent for evolving the architecture of urban community-based support facilities and accommodation. This project seeks to build on the architectural precedent that co-housing provides in creating communities, by adding layers of insight from trauma-informed design principles, Te Aranga Principles, and Biophilic design. The resulting urban community-based support and accommodation hub architectural outcome is a step toward a future typology where communities can be involved in helping reduce crime through direct support and connection with justice-involved women.
SITE: Great South Road, Ōtāhuhu, Auckland, New Zealand
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