M. Foucault

1
M. Foucault Discipline and Punish The Birth
of the Prison

• Part 4 - Prison

2
Introduction

• Previous theory on the emergence of and social
  function of prisons suggest their existence shows
  high levels of societal development.
• Foucaults view was that prisons were almost as
  bad
• The shift from a criminality of blood to a
  criminality of fraud
• Foucaults link between prison and other
  institutions in society

3
Background and Structure

• Discipline Punish published in 1975, one of
  Foucaults best known works
• Structure of the book, Four main parts, chapters
  in each

• PART ONE TORTURE
• PART TWO PUNISHMENT
• PART THREE DISCIPLINE
• PART FOUR PRISON (which I will focus on)

4
Guidelines for Study

• Foucault establishes four main guidelines which
  he intends to follow in the rest of his work
• 1) Regard punishment as a complex social
  function
• 2) Regard punishment as a political tactic
• 3) Find link between the history of penal law
  and the human sciences
• 4) Find link between the entry of the soul into
  the penal justice scene and how the body is
  invested by power relations

5
Complete Austere Institutions

• In this chapter Foucault looks at the early
  stages of the prison system and the roles that it
  was meant to play.
• These were
• ISOLATION
• WORK
• THE DECLARATION OF CARCEAL INDEPENDENCE

6
Illegalities Delinquency

• In this chapter Foucault goes into more detail in
  his criticism of penal detention stating 5 main
  critiques.
• He believes prison can be worthwhile and comes up
  with seven universal maxims of good penitential
  condition.
• He goes on to argue how the prison system ends up
  creating an economy of illegalities.

7
The Carceral

• The Carceral System is a group of institutions
  including prison that act as disciplinary
  mechanisms throughout society.
• Foucault dates the beginning of this system to
  the opening of the Mettray in 1840.
• The carceral system succeeds in making the power
  to punish natural and legitimate.

8
Overview of Foucaults argument

• Prisons are part of network of disciplinary
  institutions that regulate our behaviour.
• Whilst they were conceived as a sophisticated
  form of punishment they have a number of
  different failings which mean they do not fulfil
  their aims.
• Prisons role in maintaining existing power
  relations -maintaining the political order.

9
Critical Assessment

• Foucault offers a unique take on many aspects of
  prison particularly through his idea of the
  existence of the carceral system.
• A criticism of Foucault is that he focuses too
  much on the idea of Prison as a form of control
  (Garland)
• Weaknesses in the political aspect of his
  theories
• However overall Discipline Punish of great
  importance argues the paradoxical view

10
Bibliogrpahy

• Discipline Punish The Birth of the Prison by
  Michel Foucault (1977)
• Foucault A Critical Reader ed. David Couzens
  Hoy (1986)
• Michel Foucault by Clare OFarrell (2005)
• Foucaults Discipline Punish An Exposition
  and Critique by David Garland (1979)