If properly designed to integrate with their surroundings, however, could there be an upside to this new generation of city-centre correctional facilities? The images of these brutish concrete silos symbolised a rack’em and stack’em approach, attracting criticism from both prison reform advocates and the communities in which these fortified slabs were to be planted. The height of the new jail towers was later slashed from 45 storeys to a maximum of 29, but the damage had been done.

The 43-acre Rikers Island complex, which currently holds 7,000 detainees across 11 jails.