Environment Psychology –
Rehabilitation in Prison
Day in day out, the LYA team works with clients concerned with low medium and high secure services, and specialises in the provision of lighting for these conditions – it’s what we do.
The Care Quality Commission states that 75% of people who take their own lives while on a psychiatric ward do so by hanging or strangulation. A ligature point is anything that could be used to attach a cord, rope or other material for the purpose of hanging or strangulation. Ligature points include shower rails, coat hook, pipes & radiators, bedsteads, window and door frames, ceiling fittings, handles, hinges and closures.
NHS England commissions adult secure mental health services for those detained under the Mental Health Act. The secure services provide treatment for adults (aged 18 and over) with mental disorders including mental illness (MI), personality disorder (PD) and neurodevelopment disorders (NDD) including learning disabilities (LD) and autism (ASD).
Patients are liable to be detained under the Mental Health Act and their risk of harm to others and risk of escape from hospital cannot be managed safely within other mental health settings.
The secure services work in partnership with other organisations including Ministry of Justice, Courts, Police, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) and other social care agencies.
Patients typically have complex chronic mental disorders, which are linked to offending or seriously harmful behaviour. Some will be involved with the criminal justice system (CJS), courts and prison, and may have Ministry of Justice (MoJ) restrictions imposed.
There are three levels of security service providing care and effective treatment:
- High secure services – for those who pose a serious and immediate risk to the public and should be detained
- Medium secure services – for those who pose a serious risk of harm to others whose escape from hospital should be prevented
- Low secure services – for those who pose a significant risk of harm to other and whose escape should be impeded
There is rising demand for these services from prisons.
The systemic review published in The British Journal of Psychiatry in 2016 showed evidence that patients discharged from secure services have lower reoffending outcomes than many comparative groups.
Matter architecture has produced a guide to improve the design of prisons to aide the growing move towards recovery focused care and rehabilitation. The guide has been developed alongside the RIBA, Innovate UK and the Ministry of Justice Prison Estate Transformation Programme to provide independent guidance on design-related benefits within the prison environment.
Environment Psychology
The guide uses evidence from environmental psychology to cite areas of design that support better health and wellbeing of people residing in, working in and visiting prisons. Focusing on planning processes, construction methods, layout, materials, landscape, lighting & atmosphere and accessibility, the guidance was developed in direct consultation with prisoners and staff at the UK’s new prison programme.
While prison design has historically sought to deprive incarcerated people of their ‘sense of self’ recent findings suggest that supporting a strong and positive sense of identity is critical to the rehabilitative function of these spaces. Especially for those serving short sentences or nearing the end of longer terms, incarceration environments fostering a sense of normality, autonomy, positive growth and constructive social interactions are key to successful re-integration in society.
Recent studies have found significant wellbeing benefits from varying the light spectrum throughout the day in hospitals. Dynamic and diffused light, from both natural and artificial sources, positively impacts circadian system and is linked to increased visual comfort. Beyond optimising natural light resources, wellbeing can be enhanced through refining the intensity, quality, direction, variability and control of light sources. Simple arrangements such as providing task lighting in work spaces and curtains in living spaces enables control of lighting conditions, with great wellbeing benefits for workers and residents.
A regime with a responsibility for rehabilitation has to be equipped to motivate and encourage engagement, and then to be able to respond, reward and build on progress when it is being made. The prison service’s renewed focus on rehabilitation culture begins to recognise that for some individual’s lasting behaviour change, requires a level of personal growth of enormous magnitude, and is not a quick fix.
The mix of psychosocial issues, addictions and entrenched behaviours that contribute to recidivism can only be overcome with constant encouragement, practice and psychological reinforcement over time, in prison and after release. As people pass through the prison system and back into the community, any one institution can never consider itself responsible for the beginning or end of a prisoner’s rehabilitative journey. A rehabilitation culture or ‘whole prison’ approach has been described as the institutional values, work practices, skill and behaviours needed and emphasises the role that networks and relationships have to play in supporting prisoners journey to active citizenship and desistance from crime. The contention here is that the design of the building has a role to play in the implementation of that culture.
According to Matter, lighting in prisons typically consist of direct, undimmable and consistent colour artificial lighting. This can be straining when exposed to for long periods of time, creating stressful environments for all building users. Additionally, consistent, unvaried lighting of spaces reinforces the sense of institutionalisation and monotony.
The solution to this is to introduce diffused, indirect, varied colour temperature lighting, which is generally considered as good design practice across different building types. In areas requiring high lighting levels for undertaking tasks, this should be in addition to, not instead of other sources of light. See LYA’s solutions here.
Industry standards should be applied within prisons, such as the Society of Light and Lighting standards (CIBSE). Modern LED light fittings should be used for energy efficiency and low maintenance. These can provide variable colours and can readily be used to provide task lighting, ambient lighting and wall and ceiling lighting to achieve variation between spaces.
If you’re looking to work with a high-risk lighting specialist talk to us; we’d love to hear about your project and how we might be able to help.