Human beings are sensory creatures: we connect to the world around us through hearing, sight, touch, taste,and smell. Our senses make it possible to connect and communicate with others, and play an essential role in keeping us safe by providing information about potential dangers in our environment — for example, the sound or sight of approaching danger; temperatures that are outside of the range in which our bodies function; the air carrying the smell of smoke or other harmful pollutants. We depend on our environment to exist: we are kept alive by the air we breath, and the natural interplay of lightness and darkness regulates many essential physiological functions.
In conditions of detention people are typically deprived of the opportunity to moderate their environment. This lack of autonomy and control over very basic functions that are essential for the safety of mind and body can amount to a serious assault on human dignity, as well as posing dangers to health and wellbeing. Some people are particularly vulnerable due to age, underlying health issues, neurodivergence or trauma. For example: neurodiverse people and people living with traumatic stress disorders — both disproportionately represented in prison populations — may have heightened sensitivity to their sensory environment and are therefore more at risk of significant negative impacts on cognitive functioning and psychological wellbeing.
Often, places of detention have been constructed without due consideration of the importance of the immediate environment, and its potential for harm. The combined impact of poor environmental conditions may rise to a level that constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment as defined in international law. In addition, manipulation of environmental and sensory conditions has often been used intentionally as a method of torture. Poor environmental conditions can also exacerbate the impact of other methods of torture and ill-treatment.