Princeton Students and Faculty + New Jersey Prison Justice Watch | American Friends Service Committee Prison Watch

In Spring 2022, Dr. Basile Baudez collaborated with New Jersey Prison Justice Watch | American Friends Service Committee Prison Watch on the course “Architecture of Confinement, from the Hospice to the Era of Mass Incarceration” (description below). The culminating assignment invited students to explore, illuminate, and interrogate the history, architecture, and legacy of the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Union Township, NJ. Student projects included a press review; historical account; analysis of historic preservation issues; and a lesson plan for educational partners.

Course description: In the Western world and since the 18th century, mental asylums and prisons are linked not only by their architectural features - security, isolation, restriction of movements - but also by their common history and the goals of their builders: reforming minds and bodies through isolation and architectural coercion. In this community-engaged course, conceived in partnership with the New Jersey Prison Justice Watch, students will learn the architectural history of Western mental hospitals and correctional facilities, while applying this knowledge to the critical assessment of contemporary facilities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

STUDENT PAPERS: All work is published with students' approval and may not be used without permission.