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5 questions for foucault's panopticism
Foucault’s “panopticism”essay
5 questions for foucault's panopticism
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First, the punition of slavery state does not depend on the iniquity of conviction and could ply to prisoners refute of piracy as well as massacre. By sweeping so broadly, bondage as beating loses any restraint outcome it might have had if targeted to a particular rank of crimes. Second, deterrence is sap by the pronounced racial dynamics in the modern action of prisons, whereby minority racial groups are way overrepresented in prison populations. Accordingly, members of these family may instead trust that, whether or not they commit thief Acts of the Apostles, the purpose of prison is weakly to digest their enslaved condition. Last, slavery status undermines the goals of rehabilitation forasmuch as prisoners experience feelings of unfairness as they undergo a punishment logical by a prison administrator rather than a sentencing
In addition, transitioning to the present-day system, Jacoby highlights the modern issues in prison “The Boston Globe reported in 1994 that more than 200,000 prison inmates are raped each year, usually to the indifference of the guards.” This information serves as a strong emotional approach, challenging readers to question the morality and humanity of our modern convictions. Lastly, Jacoby poses the question whether “puritans were more enlightened than we think, at least on the subject of punishment.” Jacoby strategically plays on the readers emotions, empathizing with a reflection upon the modern penal system. The idea of a quick, painful, corporal punishment as a potential alternative invites the reader to consider whether such measures are more humane and emotionally tolerable than the hidden atrocities within the penitentiary system.
Foucault argues, that the function of punishment is not to deter crime, rather it is to illustrate the power of the state. In 1700s executions were common public spectacles where torture was used to humiliate and inflict pain and suffering. In contemporary society, Foucault argues new forms of punishment are used, such as discipline based surveillance. The purpose of the technique is used to gain similar ends, by managing and controlling offenders in a more humane
In the disappearance of punishment as a spectacle, a private sphere of pain and punishment emerges, one that came under the guise of “humanity” (Foucault 8). Though bodily pain was still present in this new sphere, it was often hidden, especially from the public eye. This punishment focused on interiorization, the punishment of the soul, a punishment shaping the souls of inmates through “supervision and constraint” (Foucault 29). This creates a fake illusion of humane-ness within the criminal justice system. In Moore’s election of death by firing squad, the proceduralization, or “timetable” that Foucault explores is made clear through the details of the process.
In this prison, inmates were subject to psychological abuses and absolute isolation. This “…demonstrated that the state’s power was in fact growing rather than shrinking, at least with regard to punishment” (Berger,
In Adam Gopnik 's piece “Caging of America,” he discusses one of the United States biggest moral conflicts: prison. Gopniks central thesis states that prison itself is a cruel and unjust punishment. He states that the life of a prisoner is as bad as it gets- they wake up in a cell and only go outside for an hour to exercise. They live out their sentences in a solid and confined box, where their only interaction is with themselves. Gopnik implies that the general populace is hypocritical to the fact that prison is a cruelty in itself.
Prison reform has been an ongoing topic in the history of America, and has gone through many changes in America's past. Mixed feelings have been persevered on the status of implementing these prison reform programs, with little getting done, and whether it is the right thing to do to help those who have committed a crime. Many criminal justice experts have viewed imprisonment as a way to improve oneself and maintain that people in prison come out changed for the better (encyclopedia.com, 2007). In the colonial days, American prisons were utilized to brutally punish individuals, creating a gruesome experience for the prisoners in an attempt to make them rectify their behavior and fear a return to prison (encyclopedia.com, 2007). This practice may have worked 200 years ago, but as the world has grown more complex, time has proven that fear alone does not prevent recidivism.
In reality torturing includes physical, mental, or verbal to be exact. Article 5 from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, “Nobody has the right to torture, harm, or humiliate you. Presently, in the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel in chapter 4 pg.64 says, “I saw Idek with a young Polish girl, half-naked on a mattress. Idek leapt up turned around and saw me while the girl tried to cover up her breasts.” Also on chapter 4 pg.65 states, “Lie down on it, on your stomach!”
Similarly, minorities, both men and women, undergo crueler charges, sentences, and punishments within the penal system. Loosely reflecting the philosophies of Michel Foucault, the practice of structural discipline granted colonialism, slavery, and the prison industrial complex the power to instill inferiority into their hostages, diminish their humanness and increase their reliance on others. The expression of discipline prior to the rise of the prison industrial complex consisted of cruel and unusual punishments. As individuals who claim to have morality, we [Americans] hold in a sacred national doctrine that we condone cruel and unusual punishments, yet these acts are executed by many officers of the law. It can be carried out through excessive physical, mental, emotional, psychological, and/or sexual interactions.
By the late nineteenth century it became clear that the ideology of penal reform that had held together the framework of the penitentiary was dissolving. Progressive reformers realized the values and strategies that once were effective in battling the tumultuous effect of urbanization, industrialization, and mass immigration to be ineffective. The theories proposed by psychologist Sigmund Freud and naturalist Charles Darwin launched a new conversation in the reform community. Reformers such as Brockway turned to this new “scientific knowledge” in order to combat the crumbling notions of reform, pushing progressive strategies to focus on the nature of the offender, rather then the offence (Blomberg & Lucken, 2010, pp.61-71).
Lastly, there are some errors in Foucault’s claiming of the changing timing in the Western penal system. It shows that the number of crimes punished by the death penalty increased to the early 19th century not fell as well as corporal punishment was still often used in 19th
While we prefer life in jail, they preferred death. To conclude, a significant extent of the nature of crime and punishment changed between social classes and over the years since the Medieval Period. This is seen through the significant groups that were involved in medieval crime and punishment, the effects of a person’s social class on crime and punishment, the sort of crime each punishment was used for and the difference between crime and punishments between the Medieval Period and today. The Medieval Period lasted from 476 CE to 1453 CE, with different punishments for each crime committed by different social
The most severe punishments were given to suffragettes and people who committed murder which ended in a hanging. One thing the warden did to its prisoners was send them to a better cell for a week or so and then take them to the room next door where they were ultimately hanged. When prisoners were sent here, they were photographed with a mirror along-side their face to give the prison another angle of the side of their face. Although this procedure was costly, it helped in controlling the inmates from committing crimes outside of prison because they have their photograph on file. This was a step in panopticism because having a picture of an inmate is a subtle way of telling the prisoner not to commit any crimes because we know what the prisoner looks like and will keep a close eye on
Foucault came up with propositions regarding sexuality. He consistently argued that it is of the essence to comprehend passion in what he defined as power rather than just understanding sexuality regarding the law, countering the repressive hypothesis. In trying to analyze the existing relationship between history, energy, and knowledge, Foucault came up with four rules that were consequently applied in the comprehension of sexuality including the provision of immanence, the state of continual variations, the practice of double conditioning and the rule of tactical polyvalence of the discourses. In analyzing the rules, a question arises; why does Foucault believe that these rules are vital in understanding sexuality?
Summary Foucault work of “The Gentle Way in Punishment” describes the shift from the excessive force of the sovereign towards a more generalized and controlled forms of punishment. It emphasizing on transforming and improving the individual into a socius through public works and introspection. It discusses the crime and how it is dealt with in a more rehabilitating sense that specific crime need specific moral counterparts. For example, those who are lazy give the counterpart of work.