Study level

  • PhD
  • Master of Philosophy
  • Honours

Faculty/School

Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice

Topic status

We're looking for students to study this topic.

Research centre

Design Lab

Supervisors

Professor Melissa Bull
Position
Adjunct Professor
Division / Faculty
Faculty of CI, Education & Social Justice
Associate Professor Veronica Garcia Hansen
Position
Associate Professor
Division / Faculty
Faculty of Engineering
Dr Marissa Lindquist
Position
Senior Lecturer
Division / Faculty
Faculty of Engineering
Dr Alayna Renata
Position
Division / Faculty
Dr Lisa Stafford
Position
Division / Faculty
Dr Kirsty Volz
Position
Senior Lecturer
Division / Faculty
Faculty of Engineering

Overview

Half of Australia’s prison population have a disability. Correctional facilities have an opportunity to help people who require health care to recover, and by doing so, increase their likelihood of living independently and not re-offending. International examples show that the incorporation of health facilities into correctional facilities has been beneficial not only to prisoners themselves but to general public health practices as well.

This has been especially the case for First Nations peoples in incarceration in Canada and New Zealand. Existing research has proposed that the adoption of a similar approach in Australian would assist in lowering the rate of Indigenous peoples in incarceration.

There are, however, currently no correctional facilities in Australia that have incorporated health facilities.

The purpose of this multidisciplinary research is to explore emerging concepts around health based approaches to planning and designing corrections facilities.

This is an industry based project with specialist corrections architects. The objectives of this project are two fold:

  • To develop and evaluate new prison typologies that will facilitate a care based model for corrections
  • To understand barriers of  existing system project delivery, based on security and surveillance, and determine opportunities for innovation embedding health research in project delivery.

Research activities include:

  • Exemplar analysis of correctional facilities (provided by architectural practices and/or international exemplars)
  • Literature review focusing on approaches to better integration of health and correctional facilities
  • Participatory workshops preparation of material e.g. design of materials and flashcards, transcription and collation of workshops data.

Keywords

Contact

Contact supervisors: Veronica Garcia-Hansen or Marissa Lindquist for more information.