The connecting corridor is not only advantageous in permitting all
portions of the institution to be reached under cover, but has been
very desirable as a place of recreation for the prisoners. It will be
noted that it is cross ventilated by windows north and south and that,
with its extended southern exposure, it makes a very satisfactory place
for recreation and exercise in bad weather when the men cannot work
outdoors. A signal advantage, too, arising from this type of plan is
that the cell blocks on the second and third stories are lighted on all
four sides because of the one story height of the connecting corridor.
The cell blocks are not only closed off from the connecting corridor
by a glass partition, but at each floor the corridor between the cells
is again closed off from the stair hall so as to make the quarters for
the men as quiet as possible. The intolerable banging, rattling, and
reverberation of the usual steel cell in the huge modern cell block is
one of the chief things to be said against it.
It will be noticed that the institution as planned resolves itself into
three courts, all of which will be kept in grass and planting and will
look as little like the usual prison enclosure as is possible to make
them through gardening means.
[Illustration: TYPICAL FLOOR PLANS OF CELL BLOCKS]