Could this be the future of British prisons? Image courtesy NCCL Galleries of Justice
A new exhibition in Nottingham is aiming to spark debate about the future design of prisons and prisoner rehabilitation.
The Creative Prison runs at the National Centre for Citizenship and the Law Galleries of Justice from September 9 until November 26 2006 and will combine architectural plans with a range of artistic media.
Moving away from the concept of punishment of criminals to that of education, The Creative Prison project investigated how prison conditions might be improved by extensive discussion with those inside the system.
Inmates and prison staff worked to look at the prison environment in a new light. Image courtesy NCCL Galleries of Justice
Internationally respected architect Will Alsop and artists Shona Illingworth and Jon Ford worked with inmates and staff from HM Prison Gartree during a one-year project to develop a series of exhibits for the show.
Displays include architectural designs for a prison focused around education, including an interactive lightbox of the proposed ground plan and a film showing the interior plans.
Illingworth’s a video installation looks at prisoners’ daily experience of confinement and Ford helped prisoners create six sculptures explore themes of rehabilitation and interpreting the architectural designs.
The plans looked at personal space, rehabilitation and education. Image courtesy NCCL Galleries of Justice
The exhibition is the result of a year long project made in conjunction with Rideout (Creative Arts for Rehabilitation) which looked at how the majority of British prisons had been built at a time when concepts of imprisonment were different to those today and that space in them was often severely restricted.
Rideout was formed in 1999 to develop new arts-based ways of working with inmates and staff at UK prisons, exploring the impact of criminal behaviour on offenders, their families and others.
