1) Transform Behavior 2) Isolation/separation 3) Punishment of individuality 4) Work
5) Education 6) Qualified Staff 7) Supervision
Foucault rationalizes that a successful prison is one that is free to function as it sees fit in the best interest of the prisoner's rehabilitation process. I would agree with this. Unfortunately there are so many unsuccessful prisons in the US because this is not the case. Foucault himself acknowledges the fact that prisons create delinquents through their various constraints. I find that today this is especially true. Punishment is currently subject to a judicial system that, in my opinion, is too soft on offenders. Prisons are so overpopulated that the 7 successful prison guidelines could never be fully realized, not to mention the dwindling funding for prisons. Instead prisons serve more as a purgatory type place between crimes. A prisoner commits a crime, serves their time, then is released just to commit more crime. 67% of released criminals commit crimes within three years of their incarceration according to a NY Times article. (http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/03/us/study-shows-building-prisons-did-not-prevent-repeat-crimes.html?pagewanted=1) If prisons were free to punish criminals according to their crime, violence, behavior, or whatever maybe this rate would be lower. It is not the prisons fault that crime rates are so high and criminals are not being reformed, it is the systems fault. Until the judicial system fixes its laundry list of flaws Foucault's ideal prison/discipline model will never be realized and prisons will never be effective.
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Amanda,
ReplyDeleteYou fundamentally misunderstand Foucault here. He isn't advocating these 7 features; he's talking about them as techniques of power which he thinks are oppressive. (Remember, he doesn't think "discipline" is a good thing, because its purpose is not to help the disciplined.) Regarding punishment versus rehabilitation, do you really think more "punishment" would mean less recidivism? I imagine a prison is a deterrent even today and that people commit crimes again for a variety of reasons that don't have much to do with how bad prison is (or not). Obviously no easy answers here, though.
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