Any betterment procedure must be in the direction of individualization.
The modern prison, penitentiary, jail or reformatory should embody in
their respective organizations the function of scientific study
of the individual prisoner--and this should be made the fundamental
element of the entire correctional process.
[Illustration: TYPICAL DETAIL OF CONSTRUCTION OF ALL BUILDINGS]
[Illustration: OUTSIDE CELL BUILDING--NORTH ELEVATION
The side elevations show the terracing of the site and the advantages
derived from the differences in levels]
[Illustration: OUTSIDE CELL BUILDING--FIRST FLOOR PLAN]
The dynamic unit of all human problems is the individual. Modern
medical science makes the appraisal of this unit possible through
the medium of psychiatric treatment and social service research. An
undertaking, however, which is really consciously intent on reclaiming
the individual prisoner to the limit of his capacity with a view
of preventing future returning to misbehavior, would be hampered
in its effect if it were to concern itself solely with the native
endowments of the individual prisoner. The source of the prisoner’s
particular being, life, is a dynamic process; and every contact the
individual makes throughout life not only leaves its impression on
him, but shapes his mental attitude toward his environment. Thus, it
is obvious that the housing problem, touching as it does every phase
of the life of man, is of fundamental importance, for the environment
determines, through the influence of the associative imagery of the
inmate, a control of his conscious acts and the mechanization of the
conscious acts of the prisoner establishes his habits. The manner in
which the prisoner has been handled in the past has unquestionably
been responsible, if not for the great amount of criminal careers,
certainly for the confirming of the individual in his life of crime.
The character and kind of prison we have had, in the past, had as its
sole aim to achieve mediæval security; a housing condition crude and
archaic in conception, which has not helped to relieve and protect
society against the spirit of crime, but on the contrary has actually
tended to its increase.
Here in New York City the municipality protects the interests of
its citizens by the enactment of a structural and sanitary code.
Structural safety and physical security and health are provided for
all classifications of human activities under the maturely established
provisions of that code.
[Illustration: DETENTION BUILDING
Typical floor plan of Detention Building, a basement and four-story
outside cell building. This plan shows the arrangement of cells against
outside walls, which gives to each inmate direct sunlight and air]