Campus Style

The idea in architecture that form should follow the function or purpose of the building is apparent in prison design. Massive impersonal cellblocks reflect eras when themes of punishment and control dominated. In contrast, the development of campus-like facilities, usually in rural areas, with small living units and other services in buildings distributed within open spaces reflected a belief that treatment and reintegration should be key correctional goals. Earlier juvenile and women's institutions in some states and at the federal level were built in campus style with cottages, including kitchens, dining rooms, and in some facilities, nurseries, designed to provide a homelike and domestic environment. The design assumed that both juveniles and women could be best reformed through education and work and by the example set by staff members in a humane setting.

During the 1960s, when ideas about treatment, unit management, and reintegration dominated corrections, both states and the federal correctional systems began to build campus-like minimum- and medium-security facilities with scattered housing units for adult male prisoners. These units, staffed with unit managers and treatment personnel, usually provided rooms for 30 or 40 inmates. They were built with wood, light, and color for a more normalized environment. Dining halls, school buildings, and recreational facilities, work, administrative and health areas were often arranged in a more centralized open plaza area, with secure fencing surrounding the entire layout.