Michel Foucault
Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, Michel Foucault
Tugrul Keskin
Foucault argues that criminal behavior and activity comes from the increase in surveillance on members of society, and the increase in coercive (forced) discipline. In other words, illegal activity is being based on very subtle forms of criminal behavior that has been defined as 'criminal' through this newly strengthened surveillance and discipline. The activity is not in and of itself criminal, except as it is defined to be so. The definition of criminal activities are created in the context of a social system in which society is under surveillance and discipline not just in the case of criminal prosecution and incarceration, but in every aspect of social life. According to Foucalt, modern society itself is caught in prison, because every single behavior of human being is in watched by the system. This new societal environment has influenced human behavior and has social and political ramifications in the context of discipline and punishment.
According to Foucault, more discipline in a society creates more delinquency. He furthermore discusses that in order to control society, the political power elite uses discipline, and the disciplinary environment that is created by power elite produces obedient masses. Again, justice is regarded as distinct from punishment; punishment and discipline are mechanisms that are independent from justice and used more for purposes of societal control. Justice does not justify crime, but it does serve more or less as a tool of imaginary punishment that does not match the crime that is committed. Therefore, justice has a new meaning in Foucault’s understanding of it. In discipline and punishment, justice is not the main achievement; instead, control of society is the key element in the penal system.
In Foucault’s view, discipline and punishment are not used for a main goal for justice. In this sense of punishment, the core argument of Foucault is that control over society is the vital element of punishment and discipline. Therefore, he later discusses the torture to body has transformed into torture to soul in 19 and 20th century. Foucault also puts power in the center of discipline and punishment, because these terms are the tool of power. Power is exercised through the justice system. The different forms of this power can be observed in diverse aspects of social life and its institutions.
The legitimation of power that takes place through the penal system is a new phenomenon in which the social and political environment is constructed through the use of punishment and discipline. Therefore, the new system of punishment has more complex power relations. Repression, rejection, exclusion, and marginalization are some of the different forms of punishment used in modern society. However, these new methods of punishment are not enough to describe the discourse of punishment in the modern sense. Foucault argues that this type of increase in discipline will result in an increase in the incarceration of the masses, and this actually results in the incarceration of an entire society. We can see Foucault’s understanding of modern society is described in his references to the carceral city. In this way, he basically distinguishes between the old penal systems, in which the body was the center of punishment, and “the carceral city, with its imaginary geo-politics, is governed by quite different principles.” (Foucault, 307)
It seems to be that Foucault sees the system as a machine that operates by itself perfectly, much like forces in nature operate. But on the other hand, if a system works perfectly, there should not be any crime or deviant behavior. Therefore, Foucault does not specify how deviant behavior occurs in modern society. According to him, there is no outside influence on the system. The system is a self-producing machine that basically reproduces itself and has control over society. There are no agents in this social structure, unlike the definition provided by Giddens. According to Foucault, power is the key element of the argument. Accordingly, we try to normalize society and individuals through the market economy, school and penal systems. In the sense of normalization, punishment and discipline are extreme cases in modern society.
My understanding of Foucault is that he sees capitalism as a machine. He also attempts to distinguish himself from Marx and Marxist structuralism. His definition of power is that power is not real, but is more likely to be an imaginary phenomenon. But at the same time, this definition of imaginary power has influenced every aspect of social and political life. The power he describes is very much real, and is used by the power elite similar to the process described by Wright Mills. Foucault claims that our consciousness has changed. He also implies that the target of punishment has transformed from the body to the soul. In modern society, the soul of society is under the control of a machine he refers to as capitalism. However, today the system is more complex than ever and historical processes have acted upon and further strengthened the system/machine. Foucault claims that a person can only be an individual up to a certain level, because after this point, their behavior is under the control of this system.
The establishment of the carceral system is the new form of discipline and punishment. This new process or system is based upon the redefinition of criminal behavior in modern society. This definition describes criminality as the surveillance of an entire society. Exclusion, marginalization, rejection and repression occur in the carceral system. The new system has stronger limitations on human freedom and behavior. It creates artificial identities and defines artificial criminal behaviors. Foucault stresses that there have been enormous changes in the penal system, and that this represents a humanization in the treatment of criminals. His perspective on the normalization of the penal system, from torture of the body to torture of the soul, provides a new system of the rationalization of punishment.
Foucault clearly describes the existence of a resemblance between prisons and modern institutions. “Foucault asks rhetorically, it is surprising that prisons resemble factories, schools, barracks, hospitals, which all resemble prisons? In the end, Foucault sees the development of carceral system in which discipline is transported from the penal institutions to the entire social body.”
Foucault uses the term ‘Panacticon’, that is a technological observation of prisoners. The idea of Panacticon in the modern society involves an observation that there exists an entire society as prison guards that monitor prisoners in cells. Technological advancements maintain an environment in which Panacticon is an imaginary observation for the entire society. Cameras, radars, and metal detectors at Airports are the some of form of Panacticons. The key role of the Panacticon is to control and discipline society. Therefore, according to Foucault, earlier societies had more inherent freedom than modern societies, because every aspect of life is under the control and observation of Panacticon.
In short, according to Foucault, there exist common elements in today’s society to that of the 17 and 18th centuries. Today’s modern societies are under the control and rule of the power elite. Besides the acts of prison sentencing and jail, the individual is controlled in every aspect of his social life; in the school environment, through the work environment and even the football game. He does not pay attention to the role of power elite. Power is instead viewed as an imaginary mechanism that is not used by any group or institution, but is more likely to exist as a self-controlled mechanism. Basically, Foucault disregards the role of the elite in modern society. In his book, Discipline Punishment, Foucault provides an explanation and historical overview of punishment in the context of the power relations that are used to control society.
