Critical prison architecture

Introduction

Monitor and punish. Birth of the Prison (French: Surveiller et Punir: Naissance de la prison) is a book by French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault, originally published in 1975. It is an examination of the social and theoretical mechanisms behind the massive changes that occurred in Western penal systems during the early modern period.

Summary

Contenido

Vigilar y castigar está dividido en cuatro partes: Suplicio, Castigo, Disciplina y Prisión.

Torture

According to Foucault, since the Middle Ages the torture "Torment (torture)") was a rigorous model of penal demonstration, whose objective was to manifest the truth that had been obtained thanks to the rest of the criminal process, and which made the guilty the herald of his own sentence by carrying the punishment physically on his own body (walking through the streets, sign, reading the sentence at crossroads...). Furthermore, the torture also consisted of a political ritual, since in the law of the Ancient Age the crime meant above all an attack on the sovereign, who was the one from whom the law emanated. Therefore, the penalty not only had to repair the damage "Damage (Right)") that had been committed, but also represented revenge for the offense that had been done to the king.

However, between the 17th and 19th centuries, torture began to disappear, basically due to two processes:

• - The disappearance of the punitive spectacle. The days of execution and torture were favorable times for disorders to be committed among the public. Furthermore, the condemned man often became an object of admiration. Starting in the 19th century, punishment becomes the most hidden part of the criminal process.

• - The relaxation of the action on the offender's body. Although the new penalties (forced labor "Forced labor (penalty)", prison...) are also “physical”, the body is taken in them as a means to deprive the offender of his freedom. The object of the punitive operation fundamentally stops being the body and becomes the soul. From simply judging a criminal act to judging a whole series of passions, instincts, anomalies, maladjustments, etc. with which individuals, the “criminals”, are described, «».[1] This, in addition, will mean the appearance of a whole series of experts (psychiatrists, educators, officials...) around punishment.

Critical prison architecture

Introduction

Summary

Contenido

Vigilar y castigar está dividido en cuatro partes: Suplicio, Castigo, Disciplina y Prisión.

Torture

However, between the 17th and 19th centuries, torture began to disappear, basically due to two processes:

Reception

The publication of the book was "widely noted in the main French cultural media" of the time, such as Le Nouvel Observateur and Le Monde. After its publication in English in 1977, it was "widely reviewed in non-academic media", however, academic reviews were "much less common".[6]

Historian Peter Gay described Discipline and Punish as Foucault's key text that has influenced scholarship on prison theory and practice of the century. Although Gay wrote that Foucault "breathed fresh air into the history of penology and seriously damaged, without completely discrediting, the traditional Whig optimism about the humanization of penitentiaries as a long success story," he nevertheless gave a negative evaluation of Foucault's work, endorsing Gordon Wright's critical view in his 1983 book Between the Guillotine and Liberty: Two Centuries of France's Crime Problem. Gay concluded that Foucault and his followers exaggerate the degree to which keeping "the masses silent" motivates those in power, thus underestimating factors such as "the contingency, the complexity, the sheer anxiety or stupidity of those in power", or their authentic idealism.[7].

Law professor David Garland wrote an explanation and critique of Discipline and Punish. Towards the end, he summarizes the main criticisms that have been made. He states that "the main critical issue that arises, and which is made independently by many different critics, concerns Foucault's overestimation of the political dimension. Discipline and Punish constantly proposes an explanation in terms of power - sometimes in the absence of any supporting evidence - where other historians would see the need to take other factors and considerations into account.".[8].

Another criticism leveled against Foucault's approach is that he often studies the discourse of "prisons" rather than their concrete practice; Fred Alford takes up this view: "Foucault has confused the idea of the prison, as reflected in the discourse of criminologists, with its practice. More precisely, Foucault presents the utopian ideals of 18th-century prison reformers, most of which were never realized, as if they were the actual reforms of the 18th and 19th centuries. This can be seen even in the images of Discipline and Punish, many of which are drawings of ideal prisons that were never built. A The photograph is of the buildings of the Stateville panopticon prison, but it is evident that it is an old photograph, in which no inmates are seen, nor are the blankets and cardboard that now enclose the cells.".[9].

Reception

Navegación

Critical prison architecture

Introduction

Summary

Contenido

Torture

Critical prison architecture

Introduction

Summary

Contenido

Torture

Punishment

Discipline

Prison

Reception

References

Punishment

Discipline

Prison

Reception

References