Reconsidering Recidivism

Over the past few years the New Zealand youth incarceration rate has been steadily dropping, however, the percentage of youth re-offending and graduating into the adult justice system has shown the opposite. On average almost half of youth offenders re-offend within two years of being released, and this has coalesced in harsher and longer sentencing. Inadequate facility placement and incorrect implementation of rehabilitative programs are failing these youth upon release, poorly preparing them for reintegration. With rehabilitative principles reliant on experience and environment to be effective, the architecture of these facilities plays a large role in the process.

In response to the escalating issue of youth recidivism, this investigation explores how architecture could be used as a rehabilitative device, analyzing how penal environments and architecture affects its users and how providing a positive environment helps with offender reintegration.

This research proposes that architecture has the potential to encourage beneficial traits important for societal acceptance and introduction, defining a list of principles important for rehabilitation and proposing an architectural response that engages with them. Here the work explores ideas of identity, belonging and independence, and how penal design can negatively affect these. It also explores normative design and how normalized experiences and form provide positive feedback to both the incarcerated and the public, investigating the importance community acceptance has on released offenders.