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The environments we create for managing the occupants in
detention and correctional facility buildings play an important
role in the penal and rehabilitation processes. While safety,
security, and efficiency are obviously primary concerns, good
design in these facilities should focus on creating healthy spaces
and minimize operating and maintenance costs. An energy-efficient,
sustainably designed building can support a progressive approach to
inmate rehabilitation and reduce electricity, fuel, and water
expenses for the operator of the facility. This article will review
the challenges to applying sustainable design strategies to this
building type and the unique opportunities these strategies
afford.
Challenges
In formulating a sustainable design strategy, an understanding of
the challenges specific to detention and correctional facilities is
critical. Funding for sustainable strategies is virtually always a
significant project issue. The budgeting and procurement processes
are typically characterized by a design-bid-build or design-build
delivery method with a fixed maximum allowable construction cost
and do not earmark monies specifically for sustainable design
features or LEEDTM certification. In this
context, integrated design solutions that shift costs of
higher-value measures within the overall fixed construction budget
are most effective—but only if functional requirements and
challenges of the facility are clearly understood and sustainable
design and other value-added goals are clearly identified as early
as possible in the design process. Quantifiable goals should be
used whenever possible to target an anticipated level of
achievement and to motivate the project team, and they should be
integrated with LEED and other benchmarks such as energy code
performance where appropriate.
Site. Correctional facilities often must be
located in rural areas, where consuming green space for the project
site and expending valuable resources to extend and build the
necessary infrastructure is almost a given. Ameliorating the loss
of green space by creating wildlife habitat on site is not easy due
to the requirement for clear, open areas that do not provide
potential hiding places for escapees or others. In addition,
parking lots must be quite large relative to other building types
to accommodate parking for two shifts at once due to shift-change
procedures. Site lighting for security purposes mandates high
lighting levels at all times, which leads to high energy use and
the potential for “light trespass” impacts on wildlife
and neighbors.
Water. Due to the occupancy characteristics and
residential use, water consumption in detention and correctional
facilities is high. Kitchens, laundries, and shower facilities
require large volumes of hot water, and special construction
requirements for plumbing fixtures in inmate areas limit
designers’ ability to specify equipment based on efficiency
alone.
Energy. With buildings occupied 24 hours a day, 7
days a week, correctional facilities are, of course,
energy-intensive. Because most cells have toilet fixtures, by code
they must be treated like toilet rooms, which means that a
tremendous amount of air must be exhausted instead of recalculated,
thereby increasing energy use by increasing the amount of heating
or cooling of outside air above and beyond what would be required
to condition recalculated air. Opportunities to reduce lighting
energy consumption through daylighting measures are frequently
limited due to conflicts with security and privacy
requirements.
Materials. Choices of materials for detention and
correctional facilities are limited due to strict maintenance and
security requirements, providing fewer opportunities to select
greener recycled or rapidly renewable materials.
Opportunities
Just as an understanding of the challenges
presented by the design of correctional facilities is key in
successfully incorporating sustainable design features into these
projects, it is also important to be aware of the unique
opportunities to include such features with moderate to no cost
premiums or loss of functionality.
Site. If possible, consider brownfield sites such
as abandoned landfills or industrial facilities that may be
reclaimed for prisons in rural areas. In addition to reducing the
loss of green space, using such sites may qualify the developing
authority for financial or in-kind assistance from federal or state
agencies. For detention facilities in urban areas, siting the
facility near public transit will significantly reduce the
environmental impact from motor-vehicle use and offers the
advantage of public-transit access to the facility by visitors and
employees, which may reduce the number of required parking
spaces. Visitor parking requirements may be further reduced by
furnishing facilities for "televisiting”—a new technology
that offers the convenience of a visit through private live video
and audio connections. While code-required stormwater detention
systems are quite common, the extensive roof area of a low-rise
correctional facility is well suited to collecting stormwater,
which would otherwise need to be diverted to such a detention
structure. Instead, water is piped to a retention structure used
for storing the water for building and/or site use. This is an
example of the possible cost tradeoffs mentioned above, where the
money already budgeted for one type of civil structure (detention)
can be applied to another (retention) with the added advantage of
reducing potable water consumption in the facility.
Water. Consider new water-saving technologies such
as a PC-based water management system that allows security to shut
off individual or group plumbing fixtures in a cell or cells, group
showers, or individual showers rather than shutting down the entire
domestic water system. Using treated recovered water (e.g.,
rainwater and air handler condensate) for toilet flushing or
specifying self-contained gray-water penal fixtures that reserve
individual lavatory wastewater for toilet flushing will also result
in water savings.
At the Montgomery County (Md.) Correctional
Facility, the building's concrete masonry unit and brick materials
were locally harvested and manufactured. Recycled rubber flooring
was used in staff recreation areas. The roof is sloped to prevent
water from ponding and deteriorating the roof membrane. In
addition, the roof's stainless-steel flashing material has a long
life expectancy.
Photo courtesy of the Montgomery County Correctional
Facility. |
Energy. Design a tight, energy-efficient
building envelope that will generate savings in operational
expenses, considering high-mass construction such as precast
concrete to take advantage of thermal inertia to regulate the
internal temperature. In many applications, integrating a radiant
heating or cooling system within the walls or floor will also cut
energy use and first cost, particularly in large open-plan spaces,
and eliminate exposed mechanical devices within inmate areas. For
air side systems subject to the extensive fresh-air requirements
mentioned earlier, use heat-exchange technology such as enthalpy
wheels or heat pipes to recover the energy from the exhaust air to
help temper air delivered to other spaces. Use of combined heat and
power systems can be particularly beneficial for facilities with
high demand for hot water, such as those with kitchens and laundry
rooms.
Providing daylight and views in cells, dayrooms, and public
areas where appropriate will not only create a calmer and more
pleasant environment for residents and staff but also will permit
lighting systems to be dimmed or turned off in response to daylight
levels, saving energy and increasing lamp replacement
intervals.
Materials. Maximize recycled content in
materials traditionally used in correctional and detention
facilities, such as steel or concrete containing fly ash. Where
possible, source materials locally. This will both contribute to
the local economy and reduce the use of fossil fuels in transport.
Using efficient pre-engineered and preassembled housing components
in precast or steel is a strategy to reduce construction materials
and waste.
The Sustainable
Future
Counties and states are becoming more aware of the
substantial operating costs and environmental impact from high
energy and water use. Several governing authorities have also begun
requiring that their new projects meet LEED standards on
buildings of a certain size, suggesting that correctional
facilities of the future will be required to meet sustainable
design standards. We hope that the concepts presented in this
article will help designers meet these needs and lead the industry
toward a more sustainable future.
Sara Graham is a sustainable design specialist in the St. Louis
office of HOK, where she promotes the use of sustainable design
practices in HOK projects worldwide. She is an editor of the
revised edition of the HOK Guidebook to Sustainable Design
and has written extensively on the subject of sustainable
design. Stuart Lewis is an associate in the Atlanta office of HOK.
Stuart is past chair of the AIA Atlanta Committee on the
Environment and speaks nationally on green-building issues.
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