Pilsen Prison Analysis

The Pilsen Prison was chosen as the design legacy for comparison against the Eastern State Penitentiary primarily because of its physical design. The architect who designed the prison, Emanuel Trojan, took inspiration from the design of the Eastern State Penitentiary. (Hůlová, 2012, p. 29). If you look at the Pilsen Prison from an aerial view, you can clearly see that its design is nearly identical to that of the Eastern State Penitentiary. Pilsen Prison, or also spelt Plzeň Prison, has had many names over the course of its existence such as Plzen-Bory Correctional Facility or Věznice Plzeň. It was built sometime around 1878 on fourteen acres of land in the city of Plzeň, Czech Republic and is one of the most famous in the country, though

not for any positive reasons. It is located right next to a water reservoir in the valley of Plzeň. Which provides a water source that was easy to access and that is still used today to provide water to the prison. This would have been one of the appeals of the prison’s location when it was first built in the 19th century. (Hůlová, 2012, p. 26). Through its history, the prison’s use has varied. Pilsen Prison was originally built for prisoners who would be serving long-term prison sentences. During the mid-1950s, the Czech Republic government decided to change its use and used it to hold mostly political prisoners. Approximately ten years late its use changed again and Pilsen Prison is now used to hold regular prisoners, and has dubious distinction of having been in operation for approximately one-hundred and forty years.

(Bursík, 2008, p. 114).

Its original design was meant for the prison to be able to accommodate nine hundred and fifteen prisoners, with around three-hundred and eighty of them being in solitary confinement and about five hundred and thirty of them having shared cells. However, over the years this number has grown and the prison can now hold a just over one thousand prisoners, with the scope of the crimes that prisoners have committed in order to be imprisoned in Pilsen Prison has a wide range of variation, as did the age of those who have committed the crime. Each cell block has between three to four floors. The majority of the cells are designed to hold two prisoners at a time in order to save space and be able to house as many prisoners as possible. (Bursík, 2008, p. 116).However, the prison does have single cells that are used for the solitary confinement of inmates. In the early years of Pilsen Prison, prisoners were discouraged from talking to one another. This system did not last long and eventually it was

mostly eliminated from the prison. However, during this time all prisoners had to follow very strict rules and if they broke them they could be beaten and tortured. When they broke these rules then the main form of torture that the inmates endured was starvation. They would be taken to a certain part of the prison, then sealed off from any contact for as long as the guards felt it was necessary. (Svoboda, 2004, p. 16). To add to the miss treatment of the prisoners were given little to no food. The food that they are given was very poor in quality, one prisoner reportedly said, “I wouldn’t feed my dog on such meat”. (Schwartz, 1991, p. 13). Although prisoners were beaten by the prison guards and are still beaten on some occasions, the cruelty towards prisoners has improved recently. This change is mainly due to the fact that the prison system in the Czech Republic has been cracking down on abusive prison guards and attempting to improve the conditions for inmates, however minorly. The prisoners were and still are allowed to send letters, however, they are opened and read by the guards to ensure that they aren’t sending any information that might be used against the prison. One thing that made the inmate’s prison life seem more normal was the regular Sunday worship that takes place within the prison. This generally takes place in a chapel located in one of the prison wings. Today life inside Pilsen Prison has continued to improve and inmates can now have the opportunity to complete apprenticeships and work for pay in limited fields while incarcerated in the prison. (Bursík, 2007, p. 48).

The wall that surrounds the prison is a shorter wall with barbed wire and fencing at the top.

It totals a six feet thick around with the exception of the front gate, which is also the only entrance or exit in the wall. It also has guard towers on the surrounding wall at regularly spaced intervals in order to observe anyone approaching the wall on either the inside or the outside. On either side of the wall is a walkway made of asphalt; in fact, all of the area that is next to any part of the wall on the inside of the prison is asphalt. Most of the ground within the prison walls is both asphalt or baron dirt with nothing growing in it, there is very little grass and even that is struggling to survive. When it comes to trees, there are fewer than half a dozen on the fourteen acres. None of the trees are near the walls of the Pilsen Prison in case the inmates were to try to use them to get over the wall and escape. When you look at the outside prison and the surrounding wall, it has either sand coloured walls or they are an orange-brown colour which contrasts the dark green or black roof of the prison. ("Google Maps"). The Prison was constructed mainly out of brick, stone, and cement. The majority of the prison’s administrative offices are located in the first building that you come across once you pass through the main gates. (Svoboda, 2004, p. 18). It has a total of eight evenly spaced buildings coming off of a round central watchtower with a domed roof at the centre of the

prison grounds. There are, however, buildings that are separate from to the main cellblocks and the central watchtower on the prison grounds. ("Google Maps").