The PANOPTICON was proposed as a model prison by Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), a Utilitarian philosopher and theorist of British legal reform.
The Panopticon ("all-seeing") functioned as a round-the-clock surveillance machine. Its design ensured that no prisoner could ever see the 'inspector' who conducted surveillance from the privileged central location within the radial configuration. The prisoner could never know when he was being surveilled -- mental uncertainty that in itself would prove to be a crucial instrument of discipline.
"Obviously i'm not mad keen on the idea of prison as a whole but this particular type just seems cruel and unusual. From an architectural and conceptual view it's pretty interesting. But from a human point of view it's brutally efficient, paranoia-inducing and horribly Orwellian. Thankfully it seems the idea hasn't really caught on and with the advent of CCTV it's easier to keep tabs on inmates in less creepy ways. Wikipedia has a list of prisons which are said to be 'influenced' by Bentham's original concept but the closest to it in actuality is the Presidio Modelo in Cuba which is now abandoned."
---Hashed and Salted
No comments:
Post a Comment