Changing Role of Prison

What does Foucault suggest about the birth of prisons?

Claimed that there were two different types of power that have been developed through time

• sovereign power

• disciplinary power

According to Foucault what is Sovereign Power?

Pre-modern societies - monarch ruled and punished people’s bodies for crimes

• crimes seen as personal acts against the monarch and so punishment was a reminder of the monarch’s power

• punishment was a public spectacle such a public execution

According to Foucault what is Disciplinary Power?

Modern times - punishment is not just about exercising power over the body but also the mind

• e.g. Panopticon Prison design

• doesn’t think bodily punishments disappeared because society became more civilised - rather that surveillance became a more efficient “technology of power”: effective way of controlling people

What is the Panopticon Prison design?

A prison design where the guards can see into prison cells and thus prisoners, but the prisoners cannot see out to the guards

• prisoners must assume they are being watched at all times and so consequently discipline themselves

Foucault - disciplinary power has dispersed to other institutions in societies like factories, workplaces, schools - indue conformity from the threat of being watched

Usefulness in Foucault’s Perspective on Punishment

• Garland - criticises Foucault for neglecting the role of the state and legal institutions in shaping punishment

• Goffman - critiques Foucault’s ideas about total institutions - emphasises the role of face-to-face interactions and the micro-level dynamics within institutions

What is Garland’s theory of Punishment and Prisons?

Claims to demonstrate how the state seeks to reassure the public that crime is under control

• Penal Welfarism

• Culture of Control

• Popular Punitivism

• Mass Incarnation

• Transcarceration

What is Garland’s idea of Penal Welfarism?

Emphasises the historical shift from rehabilitative approaches to punitive measures in response to crime

• Brief period of emphasis on rehabilitation and social welfare within the penal system

This has now changed to a culture of control

What is Garland’s idea of Culture of Control?

Shift away from earlier forms of social control

• societies moved away from a focus on rehabilitation to a culture that priorities risk management, surveillance, and the containment of potential threats through various forms of control

What is Garland’s idea of Popular Punitivism?

Growing demand for harsher punitive measures in response to crime

• public opinion influences political decisions leading to more punitive policies

What is Garland’s idea of Mass Incarceration?

Manifestation of the culture of popular punitivism

• black Americans only make up 13% if the US population but 37% of the prison population

Result of a deliberate decision to impose whole groups of the population and indicates a move away from penal welfarism to ‘tough on crime’ punitive populism

• ‘war on drugs’ policy in the US led to a ‘limitless supply of arrestable and imprisonable offenders’

• Downes - also has ideological function: prison system soaks up around 30-40% of the unemployment, making capitalism look more successful

What is Garland’s idea of Transcarceration?

Claim that many people live their lives in a ‘culture of control’

• moving through systems like care to young offenders’ institutions, mental hospitals etc

Usefulness in Garland’s Perspective on Punishment

• UK there has been a growth in ‘diversion’ policies - attempt to divert offenders away from prison: e.g. curfews, electronic tagging, ASBOs

• These policies sometimes have the opposite effect and divert more young people into the criminal justice system: e.g. young person fails to meet the conditions of their ASBO - risk facing a custodial sentence

• Too focused on Western experiences, may not adequately consider the global variations in penal practices and policies: e.g. Scandinavian Countries, penal welfarism is still dominant