Ricerc@Sapienza

What is prison architecture and how can it be studied? How are concepts such as humanism, dignity and solidarity translated into prison architecture? What kind of ideologies and ideas are expressed in various prison buildings from different eras and locations? What is the outside and the inside of a prison, and what is the significance of movement within the prison space? What does a lunch table have to do with prison architecture? How do prisoners experience materiality in serving a prison sentence? These questions are central to the texts presented in this anthology.

In Italy, the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) occurs in one of every 77 children aged 7-9 years old (Scattoni, 2019). Despite the lack of precise data on adult population (Vivanti, 2010), trends are certainly increasing. People with ASD have a high life expectancy with different level of autonomy in daily life, hence the need for a set of treatments and services dedicated to people without family support.

The prison cell is both a concrete place experienced by physical bodies and an imagined room that we meet in fiction, films and, also more recently, via penal tourism (Turner 2013). The prison cell symbolises penalty (Foucault 1977) and is, in classic penological literature, considered to be the most intimate and private space within the prison where the prisoner rests, sleeps, eats and is alone with their thoughts (Gramsci 1947).