Humane Lighting for the Incarcerated

Did you know the only federal lighting requirement for prisons is 20 foot-candles, with no ceiling at all? Prison lighting has one standard: 20 foot-candles, with no ceiling. Edward Bartholomew, principal of Bartholomew Lighting and executive director of Light Justice, and Richard Muthama, lighting designer at Lam Partners and Light Justice curator, join Lisa Reed of RBLD and Avi Mor of Morlights to make the case for humane lighting. Night walks. Quality darkness. The first IES recommended practice for spaces of incarceration. And the November 4 symposium. “Why should we have a 2x4 that is pushing out 5000 lumens within a cell?” Edward Bartholomew, IALD, LC, LEED AP, IES, is Principal of Bartholomew Lighting, an award-winning architectural lighting design firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. With over 40 years of experience, he advances lighting design as both an architectural discipline and a means of addressing social and environmental justice. Edward is co-founder and executive director of Light Justice, an organization advocating for equitable, community-engaged lighting that supports underserved communities and building occupants. Light Justice recognizes light and darkness as essential environmental resources influencing health, safety, dignity, and belonging. Richard Muthama is a lighting designer at Lam Partners in Cambridge, MA. He is the Curator of Light Justice. He holds an MFA in Lighting Design from Parsons School of Design, where his thesis on humane lighting for prison cell sleep environments received the Parsons Lighting Design Partners Thesis Prize for Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice. Richard is Vice President of Black United in Lighting and Design (BUILD) and serves on the IES Security Committee, where he helped develop the first IES Recommended Practice for lighting spaces of incarceration. In This Episode: (00:00) Lighting for spaces of incarceration (07:38) Night walks challenge “more light equals safety” (13:53) Daylight access, power, and back-of-house lighting (21:09) No recommended practice for incarceration spaces (26:40) Outward-facing mission and the November 4 symposium (35:41) ACA’s 20 foot-candle rule and amber light (41:04) Favorite spaces: Grandmother’s living room, Kenyan daylight Would you be interested in sponsoring our podcast? Reach out to us. Share your thoughts, comments, like and subscribe to hear all of our informative upcoming episodes! About the show: Lighting Matters is hosted by Lisa Reed and Avi Mor. In each episode, we’ll dig deep into the meticulous process of creating lighting design for architecture, showcasing industry leaders who balance artistic creativity with technical precision, and listen as they share their successes and challenges in architectural lighting design. Resources: Light Justice https://lightjustice.org/ Symposium registration (IES events) https://ies.org/events/ Past Light Justice symposium videos https://lightjustice.org/webinars IES e-learning: Light + Justice https://elearning.ies.org/p/lightjustice Illuminating Engineering Society https://www.ies.org American Correctional Association https://www.aca.org Lam Partners https://www.lampartners.com Lighting Matters Podcast LinkedIn:   / lighting-matters-podcast   Lighting Matters Podcast YouTube Channel:    / @lightingmatterspodcast-ig7df   Lisa Reed   / lisa-j-reed-b198154   Reed Burkett Lighting Design http://www.rbldi.com Avraham Mor   / avrahammor   Morlights https://www.morlights.com/