Designing Open Spaces for Rehabilitation in Australian Prisons: Contemporary Applications

This study argues that Australian prisons would benefit from more investment in their open spaces. It is suggested that simply focusing on security and basic infrastructure, with little commitment to understanding the user needs has been resulting in prison spaces with a limited repertoire of ideas. The design result of outdoor spaces has been generally sterile, limited to poorly vegetated garden beds, sports area, concrete seats, and paths. Finally, when designed for this purpose, open spaces can be of great value on rehabilitation practices (e.g. healing gardens) and may represent important outcomes in prisoner's rehabilitation.