Prisons - Foucault

Read the article.

What does Foucault study?
What does he argue?
What does he compare prisons to?
Why?

Foucault - The birth of the Prison

Foucault describes two types of power:
Sovereign - before 19th century when the Royal Family was in power.
Punishment was the means of asserting control over the body.
Punishment was a public thing - executions.

Disciplinary - after the 19th century. Punishment became control of

the mind, body and soul. This is mainly done through surveillance.

Discipline - Panopticon
A type of prison where
all of the cells are
visible to one single
prison guard point but
the guards cannot be
seen by the prisoners.
https://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=uMTGFVtOEyo

Have a look at the prison statistics I have given

you.
Does this shock you? Why / Why not?

Prisons today
Prisons have had a changing role over the years. Today, the prison
population is at a record high. Between 1993 and 2005, the prison
population grew by 70%.
This has lead to mass overcrowding, poor hygiene and a lack of food
and educational opportunities (Carrabine et al 2008).
The UK imprisons the most people in Western Europe. In England and
Wales, 139 out of every 100,000 people are in prison.

What is the era of Mass Incarceration?

p142.

Who is the main sociologist?

Where does he study prisons the most?
Why, according to Downes, do prisons make capitalism look successful?

The ideal of a penal imprisonment is criticized by many

reformers because:
1. It is incapable of corresponding to the specificity of crimes
2. It has no effect on the public
3. It is useless, even harmful to society: it is costly. it maintains convicts in
idleness, it multiplies their vices.
4. The execution of this penalty (imprisonment) is difficult to supervise
5. There is a risk of exposing prisoners to the uncontrolled power of the
guards
6. The job (prison guard) is an exercise of tyranny (dictatorship)