Panopticism

Another important area of this study in panopticism takes a turn to South Africa where we gaze upon the fortress like structure known as Constitutional Hill that contains The Old Fort, Number IV, and The Women’s Jail. A brief history of the Constitutional Hill tells us of the mining efforts of many foreigners that led to an increase in crime in the area. Some of the prisons like The Old Fort was a military fort with cannons mounted on each side and was disguised by making the facades of the fort an actual hill. “As we shall explore, Alcatraz, the Old Fort at Constitutional Hill, and Robben Island share a common heritage. That is, they all operated as a military garrison before being converted into a prison” (Welch 2015 pg. 92). When the British

The British mainly imprisoned suffragettes who plotted to overthrow the British government and children because no juvenile system was implemented. Conditions in The Crum were horrific and smelled worse than garbage. Some of the punishments at The Crum are similar to that of the Clink, the Kilmainham Gaol, and Hong Kong, which include hanging, being shamed in public, useless tasks, and other forms of torture that control the inmate population. For example, a way The Crum is similar to the Women’s Jail, Argentine Penitentiary, and Eastern State, is the cathedral-like windows strategically placed in the prisons. One thing that Foucault has described about panopticism is the omniscient deity that stems from the idea that gives the inmate the presence of being watched all the time. 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