“What Should a Prison Sound Like?”

The average noise level inside the average correctional facility is over 90 decibel. Though this level of noise can be tolerable when outside in open spaces, it can become dangerous inside as it echoes off steel and brick walls. Noise pollution inside prisons causes elevated stress levels for inmates and correctional officers. These increased stress levels when not relieved will cause various ailments.

The article excerpt below will shed some light and help you understand more about noise levels inside correctional facilities.

What Should A Prison Sound Like?

By Jack Evans

Prisons are hard, tough places and they sound like it. Architects know that enclosing a space predominately hard, reflective surface finishes will result in reverberate noisy spaces. Mechanical designers know that equipment selection and duct layouts determine system noise levels. Electrical designers noise affect indoor and environmental noise levels.

Yet, a visitor to many modern correctional facilities could easily assume that noise was never considered in the design process.

It’s easy to understand why: Budgets do not support extravagant design luxuries. Security and maintenance requirements prohibit use of fragile materials. energy-efficiency requirements for mechanical and electrical systems overshadow operational concerns. Sure, we would like to have good acoustics, but after all, these facilities are for incarceration of criminals.

Design professionals should ask, “What are the purposes of these facilities?” Are they purely punitive, or are they correctional facilities for training and rehabilitation? is it safe to subject staff and inmates alike to intolerable environments known to induce stress and antisocial behavior. As practitioners of a state-licensed design profession, is it ethical to ignore issues that could help create more efficient, secure, and successful correctional environments.

The fact is that good acoustics and noise control can be achieved economically without jeopardizing security. The design process is simply incomplete if acoustical problems are not defined, analyzed, and solved as part of the architectural and engineering design effort. A correctional facility’s professional design team should include knowledgeable and experienced acoustical consultants to assist with interpretation of criteria, determination of potential noise or acoustical problems, analyses of architectural and engineering schemes, and development of designs solutions.

As you can tell from this excerpt, correctional facilities across America where designed with security in mind. Yet, they forget about the ramification of excess sound.It cause can stress related illnesses and cause extreme friction inside the correctional facility.

As you might know, the average facility sound level averages between 70-90 decibels. The higher the duration under these levels, the more stress inmates and correctional officers endure. Sure, they are secure, but they are also unsafe when built with materials the reflect sound.

It’s why our FM Transmitter helps reduce excessive prison noise. It allows the television sound to be broadcast to small FM radios, instead of having the TV blast away, you can have the inmates sit at a distance and still hear the sound. They can even hear the sound of the TV inside their cell.

Why not check it out today and see how it can reduce noise in your correctional facility, other prisons just like yours have put it to good use.

Might as well discover more since your here.

…while it’s still on your mind.

…check out the odd story behind the Whole House FM Transmitter 2.0