Sport and physical education in prisons: a project for spaces and social reintegration.
Jail is a space ignored by citizens. It is a world apart that only inmates, police officers, and workers know, suffering from complex and slow internal dynamics. ACTS is a pilot project for activating sport in prison as a tool for inclusiveness. Actions carried out: hard and tactical sustainable modification of spaces improving safety and aesthetics, promoting motor activities, monitoring of psychophysical health, codesign of narratives, production of multimedia content about sport and prison.
Local
Italy
Lombardy, Milan
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
2022-03-31
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Architecture and Urban Studies Department - Politecnico di Milano Type of organisation: University or another research institution First name of representative: Massimo Last name of representative: Bricocoli Gender: Male Nationality: Italy Function: Head pro-tempore Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: via Bonardi 3 Town: Milano Postal code: 20133 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 02 2399 5400 E-mail:andrea.difranco@polimi.it Website:https://www.acts.polimi.it/
ACTS (A Chance Through Sport) is an academic action-research carried out thanks to the Polisocial Award 2019 grant, focusing on sport as a tool for social inclusion in detention places.
The research investigated the spaces of Milan's prisons - over the three years it took place - leading to the realization of some experiments in the Milan Bollate penitentiary.
The research further explored the theme of sport as a practice for the physical re-education of individuals, the definition of a relational sphere based on shared rules and reciprocal respect, as well as the opportunity to rethink prison spaces to make them suitable for individual and group sports activities, also addressing the aesthetic quality of the places.
The work was led in multidisciplinary ways by three departments: Dep. of Architecture and Urban Studies, investigating practices and spaces and designing improving strategies; Dep. of Design, carrying out participatory activities and developing a multimedia communication plan to connect the internal world with external; Dep. of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, involved into physio-motor surveys and the determination of training protocols.
The study of the prisons revealed that these facilities possess unexpected design potential, both in terms of people and places; the project emerged foremost as a tool to activate these potentialities and make them possible. So the project, as a social practice, plays the role of a communication and integration mechanism within the complex and slow internal dynamics.
The research, developed in close relationship with all levels of the prison administration, police officers and inmates, involving students, took the form of audio and video documents outlying the participative work carried out and in the realization of the sports spaces: an athletics track, a basketball court and a volleyball court outside, and a diffused-gym inside the women's ward.
Prison
Sport
Co-design
Storytelling
Well-being
The research dealt with the issue of sustainability in a multidimensional way, ENCOURAGING THE REUSE AND VALORISATION OF EXISTING SPACES AND RESOURCES (material and immaterial). It promotes interventions that are light, easy to implement and able to make the leverage effect of change perceptible, in a soft investment perspective.
Overcrowding, poor livability, and scarce maintenance are critical issues in Italian prisons. In the absence of organic redevelopment programmes, which in any case would not solve all problems, it is necessary to put strategies step by step to recover the underexpressed spatial potential of prisons. In particular, the research wants to affirm the need to reuse the existing one, requalifying it and employing underused spaces, and not endorse new prisons' construction.
So, we developed different actions of reclamation, reuse and recycle involving inmates, who are used to crafting their own spaces.
In the common areas of the women's ward, a widespread fitness spaces were created. The installation (on the walls and the floor) of small fixed tools, using ordinary objects such as tapes, hooks and wooden sticks that can be recycled materials, and informative graphics about exercises to be performed have established new areas dedicated to daily and informal physical training. Self-constructed actions with the involvement of the women themselves.
Four outdoor courtyards were repaved to allow more safety sports activities. They are the result of collaboration with a company that has provided mats for sports floors made of recycled rubber from end-of-life tires.
The main goal of ACTS is to elicit a cultural change, promoting sports practice as a programme for the re-educational purpose of the prison.
The main experimentations are undertaken at the prison of Milano Bollate. The prison aims to achieve the gradual social inclusion of inmates through their empowerment and a strong connection with the Milan area, offering eligible job opportunities and gradual re-involvement in society. The relationship between inside and outside the prison is the cornerstone of the ‘open prison system’.
Considering sport as an experience of freedom, the project experiments with the synergy between the imaginary and sports practice through space modification and storytelling. From the inmates' perspective, inside and outside refer both to jail spaces and the surrounding context. Sport represents the means to feel a sense of freedom.
A listening activity was the starting point for in-field activities such as interviews and questionnaires devoted to collecting needs, the suggestion of space modifications, the monitoring of psychophysical well-being and the development of sport training programmes, as well as the co-creation of narratives and their dissemination.
The skills employed in the project are a mix of co-design, service design, narrative-based design, storytelling and communication design competencies, addressing the power of stories to activate change processes and promote the construction of collective imagination.
Being developed during the COVID-19 outbreak, the co-design activities involved small groups of participants. This fostered an intimate and trusting relationship between participants and researchers, who developed specific and original co-design tools to support relationships' aesthetic dimensions. In a talk, a satisfied participant observed that "design puts adrenalin" where planning is often removed.
The inmates and the police were involved in prototyping and making experiments by ENCOURAGING ACTIONS OF TAKING CARE.
In situations of constrained cohabitation, such as prisons, accessibility to space is a critical aspect of inclusion; we often witness conflict and exclusion forms. Particularly in Italian prisons suffering from overcrowding.
Coherently with the design for all principles, the research practiced inclusion - as a feeling of being part of - both as a method and an effect to be achieved.
The design of spaces, activities and storytelling was guided by the intention to build inclusive processes and to value diversity.
WELL-BEING. In collaboration with the Bollate prison, a survey was carried out on the practice of sport to evaluate how it is perceived and how much it is practiced within them. Some voluntary prisoners and police officers of Bollate participated in the study by keeping a daily diary of their physical activities - duration and type - and the effort they perceived. Additionally, they were asked to wear a fitness watch for 5 days to track their step count, energy expenditure, and heart rate. Their volunteer work has been instrumental in gaining insight into sports practice within a prison environment. The collected data helped to propose programmes to promote physical activity differentiated by ability and to study related spatial measures.
SPACES. The modification of the spaces was carried out collaboratively from the idea to construction. Common spaces in the female ward were modified to encourage daily light physical activity like walking and stretching. Some open spaces were renovated to allow safe sports activities with flooring suitable for running, volleyball and basketball.
STORYTELLING. Strategies for rethinking stories in practice, in the form of collaborative storytelling, were designed to help the processes of re-establish individual and collective identities. The main aim was to overcome the common belief that sports activity in prison is merely a hobby, showing that the idea of punishment neutralises its potential.
In prison, where the possibility of choice tends to be inhibited, action research and participatory projects take on a particular value. The aim is to reinforce a process of empowerment as a crucial aspect of ‘propositive detention’. The participatory choice-making process is possible by involving a wide range of actors: police officers, staff, volunteers, businesses, researchers and university students.
WITHIN THE PRISON SYSTEM: inmates and police officers were the main clusters of beneficiaries. In the interviews, they were protagonists of the process. They stated needs, sharing experiences and highlighting the different perspectives. It was crucial for providing better and more effective co-design experiences, both identifying and co-renewal spaces for sport and co-designing multimedia outputs for communication. A survey was carried out on the practice of sport within prisons, evaluating how it is perceived and how much it is practiced. 40 voluntary prisoners participated by keeping a daily diary of their physical activities, duration and type, and the effort they perceived. Additionally, they were asked to wear a fitness watch for 5 days to track biometric data.
FROM CIVIL SOCIETY: students from Politecnico di Milano, architecture and design in particular, took part in the activities in prison. They had the opportunity to have access to a forbidden space and to have a design experience that will lead them to get hard and soft skills and to become more aware and responsible professionals.
SportinACTS was an NEB Festival Side Event (9th of June 2022): a public presentation of the outcomes by the ACTS research and the inauguration of the new sport infrastructures. Besides inmates, police officers, prison staff, technical sponsors, politicians, citizens and the media entered Bollate prison.The event built a link between society and the prison, explaining to stakeholders and the media that it is possible to improve prison liveability for inmates and prison staff.
The ACTS project involved multiple stakeholders at different stages of the research.
Stakeholders WITHIN THE PRISON SYSTEM: this cluster includes the regional director, the management and the staff of the Milan-Bollate prison, both beneficiaries of the results and co-designers of the activities. Their involvement allowed an early definition of the interventions' feasibility plan and the prototypes' implementation, allowing them to observe and evaluate the spaces they manage daily, not only in functionalist terms. The Sports Association of the Prison Police Corps (ASD Social Team), as co-designers and beneficiaries of the planned activities. The Association "Transgression.net," which promotes activities for the rehabilitation of inmates, facilitated the involvement of convicts. The listening phase and project activities themselves became treatment activities. Finally, other inmates of Bollate Prison approached the project by participating in data collection and analysis of specific needs, ideation, participatory design, the narration of the process, and the realization of spatial and communication prototypes.
Then, actors FROM CIVIL SOCIETY AND THE BUSINESS WORLD who supported the research: 1) providing materials (Mapei spa, Ecopneus, and Waterproofing); 2) providing cutting-edge technological equipment (Elite, Bikevo and Parcfor Srl); and 3) providing expertise and services (Strategic and Creative Consulting Agency and Benefit Society; PAC Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, La Gazzetta dello Sport national newspaper; sports companies for professional training sessions).
In conclusion, the research project involved a stakeholder system composed of businesses and creative enterprises that created a virtuous system capable of networking different competencies-research, entrepreneurial, production and creative. The result is a complex system of rich skills and relationships that led to activating a series of initiatives that are continuing beyond Polisocial funding.
The work was led in a coordinated way by three departments: Dep. of ARCHITECTURE and Urban Studies, investigating the relationships between practices and spaces and designing modification strategies; Dep. of DESIGN, carrying out participatory activities and developing a multimedia communication plan to connect the internal world with external; Dep. of Electronics, Information and BIOENGINEERING, involved into physio-motor surveys and the determination of training protocols. These disciplines are complemented by experts in PHYSICAL REHABILITATION and SPORTS TRAINING methodologies. With the involvement of the prison world, the research benefited from the cooperation of the administration of prisons in Lombardy and their SITUATED KNOWLEDGE ( how prisons function), without which it would not have been easy to carry out the research.
This disciplinary articulation is the result of a strategic approach to research that has considered a sport as a tool for the psycho-physical recovery of the individual, for rethinking the prison space, as well as an operative driver of inter-personal dialogue within the walls and a universal narrative medium towards external society.
Crucial was the combined work between the disciplines, influencing each other to achieve the common goal of advancing improvements to the perceived critical issues.
The studies of the internal conditions, the convening of the external company and the mutual interference between the two composed a MULTI-THEMATIC FRAMEWORK that constantly adjusts its approach, tools, collection of data and possibilities.
The cooperative effort helped to put in tension inputs from the inside (requests, potential, possibilities) and outside (public support, political and administrative support, stakeholder interests, business support).
This strategy made it possible to carry out, with variations and adjustments, the necessary project actions within the complexity and multiformity of the study area.
Through MONITORING, an inconsistency between perceived fitness (reported in diaries) and real sport activities (measured with wristbands) emerged (only 11% of inmates were active according to the WHO standards). The results led to transforming the static prison environment into a space of dynamic opportunity.
NEW SPACES, PLAYGROUNDS and EQUIPMENTS were designed and built with motor activity experts and technical sponsors. In the woman's ward: FREE ACTING, small indoor equipped spaces in the common areas for daily and informal physical training; VOLLEY_ACTS, renovation of the old volleyball court. In the men's ward: ACTION TRACK, a technical rubber ring for running (125 meters long) built in the outdoor walking courtyards; B-ACTS-KET, a new court for 3VS3 basketball (a new Olympics format); VIRTU-ACTS CYCLING, an indoor virtual cycling stations with four steady home trainers and road-racing bicycles, supported by video lessons on the best training techniques to be watched by prisoners/police officers during the training sessions.
For STORYTELLING, the results are a DOCUMENTARY on the ACTS project and a serial PODCAST written by inmates during collaborative storytelling activities.
The results were disseminated at the Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea (PAC) in Milan from October 9 2022, to November 6 2022 in the Project Room. The Laboratorio Carcere exhibition was dedicated to Politecnico di Milano's research in Milan's penitentiary institutions since 2014.
The main outcome was the opening of OFF-CAMPUS SAN VITTORE (October 2022), right inside the only prison in the city centre. It is the third space promoted by Polisocial to strengthen Politecnico's presence in Milan, building new knowledge on detention places and bringing the prison closer to the city and vice-versa. Thanks to it, the impact of the ACTS project is expected to develop further over the following years, engaging an ever-increasing number of beneficiaries and stakeholders in the designed activities.
There are three crucial innovation features to be emphasized, which are mutually interconnected.
The first relates to the TANGIBLE NATURE OF THE EXPERIMENTS AND THEIR SOCIAL IMPACT in vulnerable areas as scientific outcomes of academic research. The social sphere is involved in the research and design process. The tangible effects bring together the critical issues that arise from different points of view: public administration, populations and the various players in the investigated area, and the stakeholders involved.
The second feature is the PRAGMATIC NATURE OF THE METHOD, which places the study at an innovative research stage. The adopted approach is aimed at capitalizing on and disseminating knowledge as a product of experience. The construction of a universally valid method starting from specific experiments means structuring the entire project process employing descriptive cards suitable for formulating an investigative groundwork for further knowledge and project actions in similar areas. This means understanding the project as an "open work".
The third aspect of innovation relates to THE EXPERIMENTATION OF THE PROJECT IN SITUATIONS OF UNCERTAINTY. The study of the prison space and its impact on prison life requires an adaptable attitude to the numerous unforeseen shifts concerning the contingent malfunctioning and criticality of each prison.
The multiple relational layers intersected by the different levels of the prison system (political, administrative, management, health, judicial, media, etc.) compose a constantly changing framework of possibilities and opportunities. The design of the space, its uses and the prison tellings themselves must dialogue with this variability. This means experimenting with a design structure of changeable geometry, active in the long term, capable of acquiring elements of knowledge within the variable and enigmatic phenomenology of the entire process.
ACTS was an ACTION RESEARCH project developed in-field by a multidisciplinary research team. In particular, activities are characterized by the methodological approach of Design Driven Research, in which practice-situated experiences (workshops and in-field activities) are intended as a source of knowledge and a starting point for refining our reflections. Moreover, the PRACTICE-SITUATED EXPERIENCES are organized as learning opportunities for both the designer–researcher and the participants, aiming at understanding how the research and design framework can be improved and adapted to specific situations. It combined social engagement with the two traditional pillars of academic activity: teaching and research. Researchers and students were engaged in the following activities:
Innovative learning, focused on work in real contexts as a means to develop new skills
Responsible research seeking greater inclusiveness of knowledge production processes
Co-designing with beneficiaries to implement projects with a positive impact on the community
ACTS combined the COMPLEMENTARY KNOWLEDGE from architecture, bioengineering and design to develop a process of mutual exchange. Developing co-design practice fostered this kind of knowledge exchange, as each sub-team of researchers and students needed to coordinate tools, activities and results.
The use of digital technologies has been subordinated to the investigation of human well-being. The quantitative data collected through the devices have been used to obtain insights to be compared with the qualitative data obtained from interviews, recordings and visual documentation of spaces and meetings with people. Desk research and case studies analysis was also instrumental during the preliminary phase: the project’s kick-off was in March 2020, when the first lockdown in Italy because of the covid-19 pandemic started. Five months passed before researchers could enter the prison and have in-person meetings.
The core objective of the research, right from the beginning, was to TRIGGER THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PRISON WORLD WITH THE OUTSIDE WORLD and decision-makers using the theme of sport to advocate policies on improving living conditions in Italian prisons.
The research tried to clarify a method (DESIGN GUIDELINES) to provide the penitentiary with the spaces, equipment and planning forms for the pursuit of motor and sports activities, understood as enabling practices on a physical, cultural, social and relational level.
The experiments performed are both a knowledge tool and a medium to show possible ways of change. The INTERVENTIONS ARE EXAMPLES that can be replicated and adapted to the contingent conditions of specific prisons.
The DOCUMENTARY, THE PODCAST SERIES AND THE MEDIA RELEASES (newspapers and TV) are the vehicles TO SENSIBILISE CIVIL SOCIETY to play an active role. Over the three years, for example, two companies proposed cooperation: Ecopneus (sports floor) and PARCFor (equipment for musculoskeletal health).
The research led to EFFECTS IN THE ACADEMIC FIELD, consolidating the methodology of multidisciplinary and action-research.
The foundations were laid to continue the research activities in Milan and Lombardy. In September 2021, the Politecnico di Milano, the Guarantor of Persons Deprived of Liberty, and the regional director of the Department of Prison Administration signed an AGREEMENT TO FOLLOW-UP and facilitate operative collaboration between the institutions.
Working together, a group of researchers set up LABORATORIO CARCERE, an interdisciplinary action-research group to build relational experiences inside and outside the walls, pursuing the advocacy dimension.
The group supported the opening of OFF CAMPUS SAN VITTORE (oct. 2022), a research and teaching space of Politecnico di Milano in the San Vittore prison in Milan, with the idea of a more responsible, open university, aware of social challenges and close to the community.
3.GLOBAL HEALTH AND WELL-BING. Sports programs in prisons are essential for the rehabilitation of prisoners. Engaging in regular physical activity can help reduce stress, anxiety and depression, improve cardiovascular health and increase muscle strength and endurance. Additionally, sports can provide a positive outlet for prisoners, promoting teamwork, socialization, and stress-relief. Sports can also foster a sense of community and belonging, essential for the rehabilitation process, and provide a sense of accomplishment and self-discipline, promoting self-esteem and a sense of purpose. 8. DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH. These benefits can be pivotal in setting prisoners on a path to success and reducing recidivism rates, providing them with the tools and opportunities to find employment in the sports industry once they are released. The stigma of ex-convicts often hampers people returning to society in finding employment opportunities, and it compromises their rehabilitation path. 10. REDUCE INEQUALITIES The process of getting closer between the prison world and external society helps reduce the inequalities that convicts often face. To match inside and outside the prison administration, the corporate social responsibility and the third sector realities are called upon to work together to reach the goal of transforming the prison into a civil project space, 11. SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES.
