Total lockdown: Stunning aerial shots reveal layout of vast super-max prison

[Jazzy]

A series of stunning aerial shots have revealed the layout of a vast maximum security prison, one of many facilities springing up across the U.S. to cope with booming numbers of inmates.



Photographer Christoph Gielen has captured supermax lockdown facilities over the past two years for his ongoing project 'American Prison Perspectives'.



America's prison system is at breaking point - with overcrowding in the nation's jails at its highest in eight years.



There are currently more than two million Americans behind bars. The worst hit state is California which houses 140,000 inmates when its 33 adult prisons are only designed to hold a maximum of 80,000.



Gielen, along with a Canadian cultural historian Michael Prokopow, took a closer look at the geometric designs of these huge structures, according to Creative Time Reports.



In 2010, the photographer shot Perryville State Prison complex in Arizona while flying overhead in a helicopter.



He had originally wanted to find out the difference between the designs of prisons and residential neighborhoods - but became focused on the psychological and social implications of the facilities on those kept behind its walls.



The geometric design of the prison with exercise yards at the end of buildings keeps the prison population divided - and easier to control.

Interesting photos.

 

[DrLeftover]

Thank you, no, thank you.



I worked inside for long enough.



I don't even want to see them from the outside.... or above.

 

[Evil Eye]

Very artistic layouts.