Last week, I received an email with various photos of a building – each photo daring me to guess what was pictured. A university? A modern gym? Museum? No, the email told me, it was a Cook County Correctional Center in Chicago. Suspicious, I checked snopes. Sure enough it was a fake. However, now my interest was piqued. I had to find out more.  And, in fact, this prison was designed to be artistically beautiful. Not at all the grey, slump stone building without any windows as prisons are portrayed on television.

Completed in 2005, the beautiful glass structure called the “Leoben Justice and Detention Center” located in Steiermark Austria, is truly a one-of-a-kind, showpiece prison. Designed by architect, Josef  Hohensinn, who took comfort, color and modernism into consideration designing the prison. Of his work, Hohensinn says, “The key themes – respect for the people, for the environment are similar, no matter what you build.”

Individual inmate cells feature a window, television set, built-in shelves, a cork board, a desk and bed. Common areas features an outdoor terrace for that “open air feeling” which of course, is surrounded by bars. For relaxation, the prisoners have three outdoor courtyards to choose from which feature concrete seating walls and modern chairs. For physical activity the inmates can partake in  activities and sports within designated exercise areas.

The look and feel of this prison in Austria is a far cry from the dank, dark cells found in many places around the world; especially Los Angeles jails. However, this brings up another question. Aren’t prison cells and their proverbial “surrounding steel bars” supposed to remind you of your wrong ways? If this ‘beautiful prison’ were built in the States, it’s highly possible people wouldn’t mind breaking a few laws for such accommodations… better digs than many law-abiding citizens I know.