Perceived Environmental Quality Indicators as Health-Enabling Elements Within Prisons

• Published date: 01 March 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00328855231222443
• Author: Susana Alves,Cristina Cabras,Diego Bellini,Marino Bonaiuto
• Date: 01 March 2024

Perceived Environmental

Quality Indicators as

Health-Enabling

Elements Within Prisons

Susana Alves

1

, Cristina Cabras

2

,

Diego Bellini

2

, and Marino Bonaiuto

1

Abstract

This study evaluates the transition from an older to a new prison facility in

Italy to help researchers understand the health-enabling features within

prisons from incarcerated persons’point of view. A total of 216 inmates

completed a questionnaire that measured the prison’s environmental quality

and quality-of-life related constructs. Bivariate correlations show that as

inmates’environmental perceptions improve, so does their place evaluation.

When the older and newer prisons were compared, the results revealed the

newerprison was more positivelyevaluated in terms of care of signif‌icantspac es,

presence of light, beauty, safety, sociability, concentration, and satisfaction.

Keywords

prisons, inmates, health-enabling features, perceived environmental quality

Introduction

Prisons are physically and psychologically demanding environments,

often considered the “antithesis of a healthy setting”(de Viggiani, 2007).

While adequate environmental conditions contribute to fundamental human

1

Sapienza Universita di Roma, Rome, Italy

2

University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

Corresponding Author:

Susana Alves, Sapienza Universita di Roma Department of Psychology and Socialization

Processes, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185, Rome, Italy.

Email: s.alves@uniroma1.it

Article

The Prison Journal

2024, Vol. 104(2) 215–243

© 2024 SAGE Publications

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/00328855231222443

journals.sagepub.com/home/tpj

rights (WHO, 2014) and offer opportunity for rehabilitation (Auty &

Liebling, 2020), inadequate environmental conditions in penal institutions

are common and have a detrimental effect on health and quality of life

(QoL; Huey & McNulty, 2005).

There is evidence that prison populations are disproportionately affected

by mental illness and negatively affected by various environmental stressors,

such as noise, overcrowding, lack of privacy, peer-related aggression, discon-

nection from family and friends, and reduced presence of natural elements

(Wener, 2012). Conversely, good QoL in prison is linked to several factors,

including living conditions and their perception by inmates, engagement in

activities, and interaction with staff (Barquín et al., 2019). In Italy, prison

authorities have emphasized the need to improve inmates’QoL through

better access to healthcare services within prisons as well as promoting

health after incarceration. This creates a need to examine how Italian

prisons enable and/or constrain inmates’health and QoL.

When applied to prisons, current guidance from the World Health

Organization (WHO) states that the health-promoting prison should be

safe, secure, reforming, and grounded in the concept of decency and

respect for human rights (2014). However, most educational and rehabilita-

tive programs do not target how prisons are perceived by inmates and what

environmental features make a difference to their QoL, health, and well-being

(Albertie et al., 2017). Identifying specif‌ic aspects of the environment (i.e.,

health-enabling features) is thus particularly important for a health-promoting

prison and a more humane design (Weinrath & Ricciardelli, 2023, Wener

et al., 1985). Our study will provide a comparison between two prisons (an

older and newer one) to examine inmates’perceptions of environmental

quality and the consequent effects on their health.

A Person-Environment Model to Promote Well-Being

in Prisons

Several frameworks for designing more humane facilities (Dooris et al.,

2012; St. John, 2020; Wener, 2012) have been proposed. A recent review

considers ethical prison architecture to show the link between prison

design features and users’well-being. Prison design domains have been

identif‌ied (e.g., lighting, privacy, size and crowding, visitation, and

nature) to show that prison architecture matters as a tool for improving well-

being and mitigating the harmful effects of incarceration (Engstrom & van

Ginneken, 2022).

Building from this literature, we propose a person-environment model

(i.e., P-E model) for the promotion of health (i.e., adjustment and

216 The Prison Journal 104(2)