Stale and Still: The Importance of Air Quality and Ventilation in Prisons

The air we breathe affects us all. It influences our health, our behaviour, and our life course. However, it is an underappreciated aspect of imprisonment, contributing to violence and shaping behaviour. As an interdisciplinary authorship team spanning public health, criminology, architecture and fluid dynamics, we address the importance of air quality and ventilation in prisons with a bottom-up zemiological approach, contending that poor air quality is a structural harm with social and health consequences. We propose recommendations and novel opportunities for improving air quality in prisons that can improve prison safety and public health.