Unlike any other, the environment inside correctional facilities and detention centers can present unique challenges, including resident isolation and boredom. These products of the environment can contribute to inmate behavior.
Something as simple as a piece of institutional furniture, however, can help to negate the negative effects of inmate boredom and isolation.
Prisons all around the world are beginning to introduce chess programs as a way to alleviate boredom and encourage learning and critical thinking skills.
By providing games tables with chess boards, inmates can start to feel benefits in the following categories:
As a strategic game chess encourages planning, critical thinking as well as problem solving, and impulsive moves can end up hurting the player’s game. Thinking carefully before acting is not only a useful skill in chess, but in every aspect of life. Playing chess on a regular basis may help inmates to reduce impulsive behaviours, such as acting on violent thoughts.
As a game that trains you to think before you act, chess can serve inmates well, especially after their release from prison, and can help build resilience and promote self-esteem.
Installing and encouraging the use of games tables in your facility will helps inmates to make positive changes in their behaviors.
Providing inmates with a games table, featuring a chess board, relieves boredom and promotes spending leisure time in a positive and uplifting manner, while supporting positive interactions between inmates. Learning to make the right decisions under pressure keeps inmates engaged and focused on the game in front of them, rather than engaging in potentially harmful behaviors.
The installation of a games table, featuring a chess board may seem simple, but can provide a positive distraction in an environment where it’s hard to escape your own thoughts.
Engaging in an activity like chess, which requires so much focus, gives players an escape from their own lives and stops them from focusing on the decisions that led them to prison. This positive way to pass the time can help to uplift the moods of players while providing a positive distraction from their current circumstance.
In some cases, introducing chess in a correctional facility can help to reduce the rates of reoffending. The critical thinking and analytical skills developed by playing chess helps inmates continue to make the right choices after release and can eve help lead to continuing education.
The installation of a simple piece of institutional furniture, like a games table, can reap rewards that extend far beyond an inmate’s stay.
Max-Secure is dedicated to creating better institutional environments, with design and installation of high-quality anti-ligature furniture. Our Estillo Series Game Table features a chess board, which will help improve inmate behavior while supporting the development of critical thinking skills.
Our line of institutional furniture includes resident room furniture, as well as a full line of dinning and dayroom furniture, all of which put the safety and comfort of residents and inmates at the forefront of design!
The critical thinking skills nurtured in games like chess help inmates make the right choices under pressure beyond their release.
