Long before they are erected, before they bear witness to countless hours of human misery, these cells exist as mere lines on a blueprint, the result of an architect’s pen put to paper.Īrchitects invested in human rights have long been concerned with the ethos and effects of the American criminal justice system-and with their profession’s role in designing torture sites. Solitary confinement cells like the ones in Camp J don’t materialize out of nowhere. The cells were compared to dungeons, by people imprisoned there and outsiders alike. More than once, corrections officers assigned to the unit walked off the job. Self-harm was commonplace, and suicides were far from rare. A long, dark corridor ran along each block, with louvered windows that let in only a modicum of light and air, and a few industrial fans as the only relief from the Louisiana heat.
Men in Camp J lived in four cell blocks, in cells measuring 6×9 feet with no windows and no direct access to natural light or ventilation. The nondescript exterior of Camp J at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola, where men spent months in solitary confinement in windowless cells.
