Beyond standards: reimagining acoustic design in prisons

Design briefs for prisons often include criteria regulating noise from mechanical plant or break-in, partition performance and reverberation times. However, criteria are often taken (without modification) from non-carceral related standards used for design of residential or health-care projects. While carceral spaces are used for sleeping and health care, this paper will show the acoustic needs (and wants) of people inside prisons can be significantly different from those of people outside. This paper provides insights from the emergent field of sensory criminology into what makes the acoustic environment inside prisons different from other residential or health care contexts. It highlights the role that acoustics plays in the lived experience for the occupants, including incarcerated individuals and corrections staff. In prisons, acoustics facilitates communication and information gathering for incarcerated individuals, and corrections staff rely on auditory cues to gauge the prevailing tension, or “heat.” The intricate dynamics of prison cultures and insights from sensory criminology can readily evade the purview of acousticians. By leveraging complementary disciplines, acousticians can more effectively design acoustics which foster pro-social communication while mitigating risks associated with undesirable social dynamics. This approach ensures the acoustic design becomes well-informed and purposeful, yielding benefits for incarcerated individuals and corrections staff.