The last 30 years have seen enormous changes in the philosophy and practice of incarceration, with corrections becoming more of a ‘Human Services Business’ and less of the ‘Punishment Business’ it was in the past,” says Dr. Marayca Lopez Ferrer.

“Prison architecture has become a specialisation; one that, besides the traditional theories drawn from criminology and sociology, also considers points of view from multiple disciplines including medicine, psychiatry,psychology, urbanism and neuroscience about the treatment of inmates and the influence that the built environment can be as a catalyst for change.”

Marayca,Planner at CGL/RicciGreene in New York City along with Karlheinz Boiger,Architect at Hohensinn Architektur in Graz, Austria, both of whom have spent years working in international correctional facility design, will be attending Prison Design and Development 2016 to discuss why shifting the architecture of incarceration from a punitive to a rehabilitative model is the way forward for Australia. These influential international speakers will present case studies from abroad and will consider the profound impact that altering the prison environment could have not only on prisoners and their families , but on corrections staff and the community as a whole.