The Architecture and Design of the Communist and Post-Communist Prison in Europe

In this chapter we describe hybrid architectures of penal facilities in the countries of the former Soviet sphere. Between the river Elbe and the Pacific coast, communism replaced the emerging modern cellular prison with the ‘Soviet penal model’. Based on principles of collectivism, prisoner self-government, and re-socialisation through compulsory labour, huge numbers of camps and correctional labour colonies saw prisoners housed in communal barracks in a securitised compound, outside of which was another set of barracks for armed guards who would march prisoners out to work in forests, farms, and construction sites or to the camp’s industrial zone. With the collapse of communism, the majority of European former-communist countries joined the Council of Europe and moved, supposedly, towards the ‘western’ penal model. However, Soviet legacies, especially the built infrastructure of the prison estate, have been difficult to overcome. The resulting emergence of hybrid architectures of detention constrains the reform of management practices and dynamics of prison society. Using case study examples at different ends of the architectural spectrum, we describe the emergence of hybrid forms that are uniquely contrary to a linear conception of penal development towards the model western-type prison.