[Left: A standard county detention facility has towers and windows or bars that separate staff from inmates, small windows that don't let in much light, and drab institutional colors. Right: a illustration of the new concept jail.]

If you've ever been to Las Vegas, you know that environment can manipulate behavior, encouraging you to stay out later or spend more money without realizing it. It's the same in prison: Depressing conditions and a draconian culture can encourage poor behavior, which leads to longer punishments—at tax-payers' expense. Prison is meant to deter crime, not foment it. For this reason, two architecture firms, KMD and HMC, used design principles from colleges and hospitals to build a women's jail in San Diego that could reduce assault, vandalism, and, eventually, recidivism.

"It's not nice. It's not like you're in a luxury hotel," says Richard Wener, an environmental psychologist at New York University. "But there are colors. There's furniture. It says, 'We expect you to treat this place with respect. If you don't, you won't be able to stay here.'"

Though the $268 million Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility's first phase has been open for only a year, both inmates and staff have already reported positive responses to the design. Here's how the architects did it.

"It's not nice. It's not like you're in a luxury hotel."

1. Large windows

Both natural light and views of the outdoors reduce stress, according to environmental psychology studies. Lack of light may contribute to insomnia and mood disorders in prison populations, which can lead to behavioral problems that might not have manifested otherwise.

2. Sound attenuation

The architects worked with an acoustics expert to reduce noise and echoing in common areas, which can increase stress and confrontations. This was especially important in the cafeteria, where suspended "acoustical clouds" high above the tables muffle noise. "There's evidence that the effects of stress are cumulative," says Wener. When you've got lack of sleep, bad odors, insufficient light, and constant noise, the noise is an easy first target.

3. Campus-style housing

Living areas in the jail's lowest-security settings look much like a community of two-story homes surrounded by outdoor areas, such as an amphitheater. Inmates have personal space in the form of their own cubicles. The goal is not to make life fun, it's to reduce bad behavior, which leads to extended stays and overcrowding. "Every time we go into a building, we read the environment, and it tells us what's expected of us," says Wener.

4. Open booking

Las Colinas' open booking area is more like a large doctor's office than the standard tank that prisoners are tossed into. "When you're in a mixed room, and you feel like there are a lot of dangerous people around and they're gonna assault you, you have only a few options, and none of them are good," says Wener. "In open booking, the worst thing that happens is prisoners get bored for a few hours."

5. Integrated guard areas

Instead of observing inmates through windows, Las Colinas deputies are stationed inside the living units. You have the same number of guards, but they're in closer proximity. "It's analogous in some ways to community policing," says Wener. "It's the cop on the beat instead of driving by in the car. And the surprising thing for lots of people is that the safety record of officers is as good or better than in traditional jails, even though there are no bars between them and the inmates."

This story appears in the September 2015 issue of Popular Mechanics.

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