Where and when to eat, work, exercise, move about. Prison tries to create a particular kind of person. So, why do we still use the system? And why are we so slow to improve it?īecause, Foucault, answers, prison isn’t meant to punish, rehabilitate, or reduce crime. Instead, it has a different social function. Incarceration does not actually rehabilitate criminals or reduce crime. Together, they would learn good work habits.īut do prisons actually achieve these goals? Each inmate would have time alone to reflect on their crimes. Prison would help prisoners psychologically. Of course, these writers wanted a less cruel system. But a less public, less physical system would be better. Kings, they said, had preferred public punishment. A summary of the ideals of 18th and 19th century European writers. It’s an intellectual history of criminal punishment in France. This summer, I re-read his book Discipline and Punish: Birth of the Prison (1975). Sure, we all cite him, but have we read his work lately? And seen just how current it is? Michel Foucault (1926-1984), French philosopher and historian.
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