Michel Foucault, the author of the book Discipline and Punish, describes the birth of normalization and discipline with the opening of the Mettray Prison Colony. He says, “There were penal colonies envisaged by the law of 1850: minors, acquitted or condemned, were to be sent to these colonies and brought up in common, under strict discipline, and trained in agricultural work…The carceral circles widen…We have seen that, in penal justice, the prison transformed the punitive procedure into a penitentiary technique” (Foucault 298). This quote helps us understand the creation of a commonly accepted mode of behavior by society- the “norm”. The norm that is held by society creates a class gap between the normal and abnormal- those who break the law
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Imagine walking into a dungeon. The tall, medieval, castle-like structures automatically instill within you a sense of formidability, inferiority, and danger. Prison architecture achieves a similar feeling. Foucault, in his chapter Panopticism, presents Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon- the design of prison buildings where a tower stands tall in the center, surrounded by all of the prisoners’ cells. This design automatically ensures the functioning power- the superiority of the state over the prisoner- through visibility and invisibility. A prison guard, from the central guard tower, can view all prisoners’ cells and clearly and immediately monitor their actions. However, prisoners are unable to see the guard because of his invisibility; the guard tower is positioned and materialized in a way that prevents their visibility from prisoners. Foucault says, “Each individual, in his place, is securely confined to a cell from which he is seen from the front by the supervisor; but the side walls prevent him from coming into contact with this companions. He is seen, but he does not see; he is the object of information, never a subject in communication” (200). This panoptic design of prison, described by Foucault, is a mechanism of exercising power, efficiently and naturally, over prisoners’
Imagine walking into a dungeon. The tall, medieval, castle-like structures automatically instill within you a sense of formidability, inferiority, and danger. Prison architecture achieves a similar feeling. Foucault, in his chapter Panopticism, presents Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon- the design of prison buildings where a tower stands tall in the center, surrounded by all of the prisoners’ cells. This design automatically ensures the functioning power- the superiority of the state over the prisoner- through visibility and invisibility. A prison guard, from the central guard tower, can view all prisoners’ cells and clearly and immediately monitor their actions. However, prisoners are unable to see the guard because of his invisibility; the guard tower is positioned and materialized in a way that prevents their visibility from prisoners. Foucault says, “Each individual, in his place, is securely confined to a cell from which he is seen from the front by the supervisor; but the side walls prevent him from coming into contact with this companions. He is seen, but he does not see; he is the object of information, never a subject in communication” (200). This panoptic design of prison, described by Foucault, is a mechanism of exercising power, efficiently and naturally, over prisoners’