Change and stability through public buildings. An institutional analysis of Swedish prisons.

Abstract

What do prisons actually do? Are they merely containers for correctional practices, or active forces shaping how prison sentences are understood and transformed over time? This report examines the relationship between public administration and its buildings. It presents a case study that investigates how the prison as a social institution has evolved through its interaction with the buildings that house it. Drawing on a historical analysis of Swedish prisons, the study combines archival materials, policy documents, and interviews to trace five generations of prison design, motivation, use, and institutional implications. The findings show that buildings are not passive backdrops but anchors that can stabilize or transform the prison institution. From isolation-focused cell prisons to today’s capacity-driven expansion, shifts in architecture reflect changing ideas about punishment, rehabilitation, and security. More importantly, however, institutional change often emerges through new buildings that are themselves driven by practical pressures rather than by explicit visions of reformed correctional care. This report is relevant to researchers in public administration, as well as to practitioners, policymakers, and professionals in correctional services and public infrastructure planning concerned with how material environments shape governance. By viewing buildings as anchors, the report offers analytical tools for understanding how design choices, capacity decisions, and spatial arrangements can enable, constrain, and reshape public institutions. This report was written by Johan Sandén, postdoctoral researcher at the School of Public Administration within the project ‘The Materialization of Change: How Built Spaces Drive, Prevent and Modify Organizational Change’, funded by Forte. Sandén is currently senior lecturer at Södertörn University.