Discipline And Punish: The Birth of the Prison

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1975

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

The Relationship Between Knowledge and Power

Knowledge is the key to power. This is the heart of Foucault’s argument in Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Foucault traces the origin of power and follows it through the evolution of the Western penal system. At each point, he shows how knowledge is used to enact strategies of power. He opens with the public spectacle. This system placed the power in the hands of the justices and prosecution while stripping autonomy away from the accused. The convicted individual was left in the dark about the investigation and unable to counter any of the allegations. This control of knowledge puts power in the hands of the prosecutors rather than the accused. There was no way the convicted person could fight back or establish power of their own. The problem with public torture that eventually led to its end was that it placed too much power in the hands of the spectators; by watching, they had access to knowledge and challenged the authority of the sovereign.

In modern prison systems, the same tactic is used. Prisoners are tucked away and hidden from public view, so the public has no power over the prison. Prisoners also are limited in their knowledge. The Panopticon represents this play between visibility and secrecy. Guards are placed in a tower where they can see all the inmates in their individual cells that are arranged in a circle surrounding the tower. The guards move freely about the tower, but the use of backlighting in the cells conceals them from the inmates’ view. Meanwhile, the inmates live in isolation, unable to see the guards or one another. This places the power completely in the hands of the administrators. In this way, Foucault argues that prison administrators complete a cycle of sovereign power.

The modern soul became another way for rulers to gather information and enact control. The birth of scientific psychology created a new field for collecting information. The Panopticon’s success is predicated upon constant surveillance; the guards can always keep detailed records of the prisoners’ actions and movements, individualizing them as case studies. Psychology adds to this collection of knowledge. The invention of the modern soul is directly reflected in the cerebral nature of contemporary punishment. Judges concern themselves with the motives of prisoners as much as the actions. Murderers can receive different sentences based upon whether they were premeditated. Those with mental impairments may be sent to different institutions than other prisoners because of their presumed inability to understand the repercussions of their actions. The workings of the mind play a huge role in the acquisition of knowledge, and that means more power. Foucault suggests the invention of the modern soul and the rise of the carceral system are intrinsically linked, each feeding the other. The more knowledge that can be obtained means a greater manifestation of power.

The Function of Punishment

Throughout the work, Foucault outlines the many functions of punishment, particularly as they are conceived by others. Public spectacle serves various purposes: to deter spectators from ever wanting to commit a similar crime, to engage the public in recognition of the power and autonomy of sovereign authority, to elicit a confession, and to establish truth. Damiens the regicide serves as an example of this function of punishment. At various points during his torture, a priest asked Damiens if he had anything to say, and the crowd would hush to hear his answer. A confession from a tortured individual served as the bridge between earthly judgment and heavenly judgment, and it immediately preceded execution. In this way, public torture also became a vehicle for spirituality and religion.

Contemporary punishment had similar aims but presented them in a different light. Prisons gave the appearance of humane treatment; they were gentler, more regimented, and less brutal. Foucault argues, however, that this appearance was not indicative of the reality. Prisons were still a punishment of the body as much as they were a punishment of the soul. By removing punishment from the sight of the public, prison administrators were able to operate with impunity. Prison reform emerged at the same time as the prison themselves; advocates for reform wanted prisons to function as transformative institutions that turned prisoners into functioning and moral citizens. The fact that this did not happen meant the aim of prisons was, in fact, something else. Foucault suggests that punishment is a strategy of power, and that power is exerted for a very specific reason.

The purpose, he suggests, is the preservation of illegalities. He outlines the illegalities of property and rights. The proletariat enjoys the illegalities of properties so long as they submit to the social Norms—the socially-accepted rules that outline behaviors. They could steal from one another so long as they did not touch the bourgeoisie or the government. The bourgeoisie, on the other hand, enjoyed the illegality of rights. They were able to impose sweeping rights upon anyone they pleased. The function of punishment was to maintain this status quo and preserve illegalities for the bourgeoisie.

Foucault viewed power as pervasive: It constitutes humanity. He rejects the idea that punishment can ever be separated from power; it is a strategy of power. In the cases of the carceral system and public spectacle, the strategy of power is to preserve illegalities for the upper class.

The Body Versus the Modern Soul

The concept of the body is innately political. In early forms of punishment, all ritualistic disciplinary action was centered on the body. Public torture and execution served as a symbol for what would happen if someone stepped out of line. The fear of punishment was meant to be the deterrent of crime and challenges to sovereign law, and the body became the political writing of this metaphor. Foucault’s detailed and gruesome depiction of the execution of Damiens is meant to emphasize the role of the body in this form of punishment. Power is always exerted over the body first.

Later forms of punishment emphasized the use of docile bodies. Disciplines were enacted to keep bodies engaged in a rhythmic and ritualistic order. Those disciplines included isolation, regimented meals, education, and limitations of space. Foucault shows how all institutions utilize docile bodies. Modern implications of docile bodies can be found in schools and military institutions. Students are expected to sit at desks in rows in isolated classrooms, and their time is regimented by hour-long class periods dedicated to singular subjects. Examination is used to determine the level of their docility. Similarly, soldiers wear identical uniforms, march in a regimented fashion, eat at the same time every day, and follow clearly-outlined routines. These disciplines create docile bodies that can be observed and documented.

The Panopticon represents the convergence of the body and the modern soul. Guards can watch every movement of every inmate and keep detailed records of their actions. Their docile bodies become individualized case studies that are used to determine new ways of preserving power. The soul, on the other hand, provides other forms of knowledge that can be observed and recorded.

Foucault asserts that the carceral system—although no longer embracing physical torture—is still reliant upon docile bodies and the limitation of the body itself. However, it incorporates elements of the modern soul, which Foucault asserts is both a reflection of and a catalyst for the shift in punitive measures in the Western world. Foucault uses the term “soul” in the philosophical tradition; it represents the innate being inside of the individual, as well as the processes of the mind.

The emergence of the modern soul rendered public torture too vicious and too primitive to continue; therefore, another mechanism needed to be formed. This mechanism still needed to exert power over the body, but it also had to meet the criminal demands of the mind. The carceral system was a way of controlling the body while examining and surveilling the mind. Both the body and the soul are utilized for the retention and execution of power. No penal system can separate itself from the enactment of power over the body or the mind.