In parts of the world that experience all four seasons, the toilet is usually placed on an inside wall with a service shaft shared between two cells. The location of the toilet within a wet cell dictates that cell’s accessibility to light and views depending on climate. There is never one solution when it comes to toilets in a correctional setting, but is important to understand the benefits and consequences of each typical strategy and match those results with the appropriate population. A dry cell is the best way for an inmate sleeping space to actually resemble a bedroom with non-prison like furnishings. If cells are dry, ventilation rates can be reduced, and there is opportunity to use building materials and furniture that are less expensive as they do not need to withstand toilet flooding.
It is far more cost effective to design dry cells or dormitories with shared washrooms. Even the most benign general population unit outfitted with wet cells can be used as makeshift single occupancy isolation units for extended periods of time. The toilet is the essential appendage a locked room requires to create isolation. This is quite taxing on the ventilation system and thus more expensive to maintain and operate. Adding to their cost, each wet cell is essentially a washroom and its air change rates reflect that. Traditionally, configured wet cells are much more hardened and austere.
As mentioned, within a wet cell the level of custody can be higher, and often the building materials are very robust, including expensive high security windows, doors and epoxy paint on reinforced concrete block walls. Cells with toilets are expensive to build, operate, and maintain. The toilet location provides insight into the budgets of a facility. Decidedly, there is nothing ordinary about sleeping in the same room as a toilet, never mind a shared and noisy toilet as is the case within a traditional wet cell configuration. The toilet’s relationship to the cells also speaks to the amount of "normalcy" that can be brought to the facility. For this reason, day spaces flanked with wet cells are seen as the easier model to supervise. Correctional officers do not want to escort high-risk inmates to and from the toilet, as too much can go wrong in that journey from cell to toilet. Areas holding higher security inmates are often equipped with wet cells. For example, it often speaks to the level of custody desired. One of the first determinants when designing a detention occupancy is whether the cells are wet or dry-which is to say, with a toilet or without. The decisions we make as designers and operators about where the toilets are located, how they are controlled, how many there will be, and even what they are made of, will have bearing on those living and working in these facilities in ways that are more complicated and profound than just providing a device to accept waste. But in a correctional environment, the throne is king. Whether it is the actual plumbing, occupancy issues, or barrier-free design, the toilet figures prominently in an architect’s life. It isn’t glamorous, and maybe architects don’t want to admit it, but we talk about toilets a lot.