NOTES
ON PRISON
IT TAKES FEW SECONDS TO LOAD THE DIAGRAM
Society tends to view the prison as an indispensable typology for the functioning of a democratic state. This conviction relieves us of the responsibility to think about its alternatives. The media image of the prison – often grotesquely demonised – defends the role and inevitability of its existence, while simultaneously distorting and obscuring the real reasons why people commit crimes and end up incarcerated. 1 We find ourselves at a point where prison buildings are ageing, and in many countries they are operating at or beyond their capacities (according to the 2024 Statistical Yearbook of the Czech Prison Service, 43% of facilities are over capacity). Discussions are therefore emerging about modifying and reconstructing existing facilities, as well as building new – supposedly more humane, but technologically more advanced – structures that would better meet the carceral demands of the 21st century. Yet the debate should instead centre on changes that could lead to the abolition of prisons altogether, and with it, a society no longer dependent on punishment and the expansion of prison infrastructure. Any attempt to improve or “humanise” the prison merely legitimises its existence and that of the carceral state – and every expansion will inevitably increase the number of incarcerated people, since prison statistics reflect changes not so much in actual crime rates, but primarily in penal policy. 2
The Prison Population in the Czech Republic
The Czech Republic has one of the largest prison populations in the European Union, ranking third in 2022 in terms of the number of incarcerated persons per 100,000 inhabitants. This figure does not necessarily stem from a high number of convicted persons, but primarily from the length of custodial sentences (high minimum sentences and special provisions for repeat offences – recidivism). 3 In 2024, there were 19,430 people held in Czech remand prisons, prisons, and secure detention facilities, of whom only 33% were serving a custodial sentence for the first time. This resonates with Michel Foucault’s theory that prisons create recidivism – mass incarceration neither reduces reoffending nor creates a safer state. 4 If it did, the United States would be the safest country in the world. 5
The main factor leading to incarceration is poverty. According to statistics from the Institute of Criminology and Social Prevention (ICSP), a large proportion of convicted persons lack stable or adequate housing, professional qualifications, or sufficient work experience. Particular attention must also be paid to access to education – precisely half of the prison population has only completed basic schooling. The ICSP further reports that almost 90% of convicted persons have outstanding financial debts, and the idea that imprisonment might help to resolve these burdens is entirely misguided and paradoxical. 6
Mass incarceration is a political strategy for controlling the social and legal apparatus of the state. The retributive justice system does not address the causes of criminal behaviour and overlooks the social and economic conditions that lead to lawbreaking. Hardship and poverty play no role in the criminal justice process. Poverty is criminalised, as are the communities and places associated with it. These individuals and areas are more frequently subjected to police interventions, checks, and prejudice – with racialised perceptions playing a significant role. 7 In the Czech context, the highest proportion of convicted persons in 2023 (32%) came from the Ústí nad Labem and Moravian-Silesian regions (based on registered permanent residence). These two regions are simultaneously affected by destabilising poverty (index from very low to very high); according to data from PAQ Research, in the Ústí nad Labem region, 13 out of 16 municipalities with extended powers were categorised as having a very high poverty rate. Both regions share the highest indices of socioeconomic disadvantage and the highest unemployment rates. In 2024, Ústí nad Labem had the highest number of people subject to debt enforcement, and in 2015, the region recorded the highest number of people living in socially excluded localities.
Poor people, quite logically, do not have enough resources for a dignified life, let alone legal defence. They often end up in prisons, which have little to do with correction or rehabilitation. Given the high recidivism rate in the Czech Republic, it is clear that former prisoners are drawn into a carceral spiral, with 35% returning to prison within two years of release. Most of those caught in this spiral made mistakes linked to economic instability. These mistakes are amplified by class inequality, systemic racism, unemployment, criminalised or dysfunctional family backgrounds, the housing crisis, inaccessibility of education, insufficient healthcare and social services, stigmatisation, and carceral capitalism. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it sufficiently illustrates the real causes behind criminal acts. Individual responsibility therefore becomes a fragile perspective for judging whether everyone has the same conditions to avoid committing a crime. In 2024, the most common offence leading to incarceration was theft. Altogether, 29,020 people were sent to prison for committing crimes. This figure shows that there are more people in prison who have committed more than one criminal offence (as the number of people in prison who have committed more than one offence is more than the total number of prisoners). The statistical yearbook lists a total of 35 different crimes, the most common being theft (7,361 cases).
Theory of Change – A Society Without Prisons
A crucial argument for prison abolition is the fact that incarceration does not increase safety, since it only acts after a crime has been committed. The money invested in running prisons would be far more useful and necessary if spent on prevention. However, for the neoliberal state, a key factor is that prisons attract capital – an idea central to the concept of the prison-industrial complex, which exposes how prison construction and operation create a continuous stream of contracts for the construction industry, security services, supplies, and access to cheap labour. The Czech Act on the Execution of Punishments imposes an obligation on prisoners to work (provided their health allows it), and while they may refuse to work for private companies, they must accept a job in the prison. In 2024, the average monthly wage for a prisoner was CZK 7,043 (the national average wage that year, according to the Czech Statistical Office, was CZK 46,165). A building full of imprisoned bodies is thus brilliantly transformed into a source of profit. Information about the scale of contracts associated with prisons and the enormous sums involved can be found in the Czech Justice Ministry’s Open Data. However, the neoliberal state is liberal only towards the wealthy; for the lower and middle social classes – who cannot buy their way out of wrongdoing – it remains destructive and authoritarian. 8
Change demands a fair redistribution of power and wealth. It requires significant investment in criminalised communities and infrastructure that addresses social inequalities. These resources would guarantee access to healthcare and social services (including mental health care), housing, and education. They also include strategies specifically tailored to the conditions people find themselves in, such as support for addiction treatment, unconditional income, or emergency financial aid. 9 A transformative step is the transition from retributive to restorative justice, shifting resources and attention to the victims after a crime, while involving perpetrators in repairing the harm they have caused.
The alternative to prisons is a system that invests in these socio-economic determinants and enables a world in which prisons as institutions could be abolished. This system is feminist and intersectional – it does not authorise greater access to care, safety, dignity, or education based on individual characteristics or identities. 10 It recognises the complexity of identity and experience, decriminalises everyday existence, and ultimately rejects any domination over human, animal, plant, or inanimate life.
The Spectrum of Change
This change will unfold across a spectrum, and all people and professions are part of it. Architecture organises bodies in space, and prisons represent the greatest control material structures can exert over individuals. Behind the architectural control lies political power, which mirrors the philosophy of its time – a material expression of the state's penal policy objectives. The birth of the prison was tied to experimental and utopian goals for reformist typology; in the 19th century, prisons became repressive structures reminiscent of medieval castles. A century later, the discourse shifted to resocialisation, but soon capitalism – which had prioritised imprisonment as the primary mode of punishment – firmly took over, turning prisons into profit-driven prison-industrial complexes exploiting the poor. 11 The phenomenon of the prison-industrial complex quickly adapted ways to enforce carceral strategies beyond the physical confines of prisons. 12 These buildings are all designed by architects who chose to participate in their construction, lending their expertise to a political order that punishes poor bodies. Architecture can contribute to the prison abolition movement simply by refusing to participate in the construction of any building intended for incarceration. Any involvement in these projects is nothing more than an attempt to shirk responsibility for one’s actions – creating bad places with good intentions does not make them good.
Selected principles, forms, and elements of material and immaterial incarceration in space are gathered here in an online archive. This format was chosen as an analytical tool to facilitate understanding of prison architecture and mass incarceration through material and spatial strategies. It is also a subversive commentary on the fact that archives of these places are not easily accessible to the public (and in many cases not accessible at all), and that very few materials are available for critical analysis.
1 Angela Y. Davis, Jsou věznice překonané?, Prague 2021, pp. 16–20.
2 Carole Gayet-Viaud – Valérie Icard, Architecture Carcérale et Sens de la Peine: Formes et Usages Contemporains de la Prison, Metropolitiques. Available at: https://metropolitiques.eu/Architecture-carcerale-et-sens-de-la-peine-formes-et-usages-contemporains-de-la.html, accessed on 28 Apr 2025.
3 Lucie Frnchová, Speciální Skutkové Podstaty pro Recidivisty: Nepromyšlené a Škodlivé, available at: https://www.prf.cuni.cz/aktuality/studie-legal-data-hub-specialni-skutkove-podstaty-pro-recidivisty-nepromyslene-a-skodlive, accessed on 1 Apr 2025.
4 Michel Foucalt, Dohlížet a trestat: kniha o zrodu vězení, Prague 2000, p. 366.
5 Lyle C. May, A Narrative of Control, Inquest, 2024. Available at: https://inquest.org/a-narrative-of-control, accessed on 28 Apr 2025.
6 Press Release, Institut pro kriminologii a sociální prevenci představil nejnovější výzkumné poznatky o reintegraci osob propuštěných z výkonu trestu odnětí svobody, available at: https://msp.gov.cz/en/web/msp/tiskove-zpravy/-/clanek/institut-pro-kriminologii-a-soci%C3%A1ln%C3%AD-prevenci-p%C5%99edstavil-nejnov%C4%9Bj%C5%A1%C3%AD-v%C3%BDzkumn%C3%A9-poznatky-o-reintegraci-osob-propu%C5%A1t%C4%9Bn%C3%BDch-z-v%C3%BDkonu-trestu-odn%C4%9Bt%C3%AD-svobody, accessed on 28 Apr 2025.
7 Paul Butler, Poor People Lose, Inquest, 2023. Available at: https://inquest.org/poor-people-lose/, accessed 26 Apr 2025.
8 Dominique Moran, Carceral Geography: Spaces and Practices of Incarceration, London 2018, p. 107.
9 Ben Grunwald, Data-Driven Decarceration, Inquest, 2023. Available at: https://inquest.org/data-driven-decarceration/, accessed on 12 Apr 2025.
10 Erin Collins, Pinkwashing Prisons, Inquest, 2025. Available at: https://inquest.org/pinkwashing-prisons/, accessed on 18 Apr 2025.
11 Yvonne Jewkes – Ben Crewe – Jamie Bennett (ed.), Handbook on Prisons, London 2016, pp. 182–192.
12 Dominique Moran (et al), Linking the Carceral and the Punitive State: A Review of Research on Prison Architecture, Design, Technology and the Lived Experience of Carceral Space, Annales de Géographie II, 2015, no. 702–703, pp. 163–184.
ADÉLA VAVŘÍKOVÁ
THEORETICAL TEXT
The project’s political dimension contributes to the discourse on prison abolition, while also serving as a professional appeal to the architectural community: to learn to recognise spaces designed for oppression and violence, and to refuse further participation in their production. Instead, it calls for the use of imagination as a design tool, encouraging the creation of a society grounded in care and social equality.
At the top of the webpage, readers will find (1) a list of frequently asked questions related to prison abolition, (2) a glossary of terms, and (3) a manual explaining the structure of the online archive, including its categories, tags, and entries.