Articles
A Kinder, Gentler Prison in Austria
The latest issue of The New York Times Magazine looks at a novel prison in Leoben, Austria (slideshow here). Designed by Josef Hohensinn, the...
06.18.09
What's most interesting about Leoben, though, is that it questions what we're trying to accomplish by locking people up in the first place. Are we trying to heal people or hurt them? What if treating convicts with dignity is a better way to reform them than brutalizing them?Hohensinn actually goes a step further. When asked whether he'd rethink his design for the Leoben prison if it were demonstrated that it did, in fact, encourage crime, he says no: "The prisoners' dignity is all I really care about."That's a more radical view than most people are ready to adopt. Cost and public safety are also pretty important considerations. But in America we'd do well to figure out what it is we do care about when it comes to the design and function of our prisons.Thanks, Ryan.