Prisons are vital in a society since it is part of the country’s criminal justice system. It plays crucial part in ensuring that offenders are brought to justice and that the rule of the law is upheld. It is general knowledge that the prisoners experience gross violations of their basic human rights. The traditional ideas about prisons include appalling suffering and maltreatment of prisoners. However, there are new principles that are applied today changed the environments of prisons. In the US, there are various reformations about prisons that looks upon the context of human rights. Reformation of the prison cells for he convicted criminals was done in New York during the early 19th century. There was the development of the prisons that are aligned with their beliefs (Correction History, 1971). Even in physical aspects and architectural designs, there is an evolution in the way prisons are done that would lessen the need for prisoners to be subjected to isolated and dark rooms.
The new design for prisons presented by Jeremy Bentham has widely influenced the way authorities and government agencies think about imprisonment. As described by Bentham, the panopticon is built with circular building, where the prisoners in their cells are found occupying the circumference, while the officers are found in the center. There are blinds and other contrivances that conceal the inspectors allowing a sort of omnipresence to the authorities (Evans, nd). These designs have been both rejected and adapted by various government agencies. Guatamano was designed after such concept, making it as a prison that is “safe, humane, legal, transparent” (Veeren, 2014). The model stood as good venue for harnessing the rights of the human even if they are convicted as bad elements of the society.
Panopticon is a good design that would change the way that the world is treating the prisoners. With the idea of constant observation and inspection to the prisoners, via the visibility of every prisoner to the authorities would prevent these people to attempt and do further trouble. Thereby, there will be lesser opportunities for them to get into fights as an internal consciousness would be upon them that someone is watching there every movement. There would be no need for anyone to be placed in solitary dark rooms that would take away their ideas as part of the humane society. As Obama stated, solitary confinement leads to lasting psychological consequences that would make these prisoners indifferent from the normal people (Eilperin, 2016). These people from the prisoners should be treated humanely so that they would immerse easily with the normal people in the society. Otherwise, they would continue to become potential dangers in the society.
The idea of Panopticon is indeed a revolutionary thing. Foucault commended this architecture proposal for prisons by Bentham. He commended that with the use of this design for prisons, there is no need for torture and subjection of the prisoners to dungeons like the traditional methods of punishing prisoners. Through the use of panopticon, the coercion of the prisoners can be done in a sophisticated yet powerful method without the use of physical abuse. The presence of constant observation through strategic placement of the prisoners and the guards allows the authorities to see the activities of every cell from their vantage point. An internalized control mechanism is being created evoking consciousness of everyone through constand surveillance and observation. As Foucault stated, the model presented by Bentham embodies a society’s character that is based on discipline. He even associated power to knowledge as the panopticon allows the authorities to gain knowledge about the prisoners through the surveillance system (Foucault). The new designs for prisons would make this world a better place as the people coming from these places would inhibit a sense of discipline and hope that they can still have chances of living outside with freedom.
References:
Correction History. (1971). “The Evolution of the New York Prison System”. Correction History
New York Society.
Eilperin, J. (2016). “Obama bans solitary confinement for juveniles in federal prisons”. The
Washington Post.
Evans, R. (nd). “The Fabrication of virtue: English Prison Architecture, 1750-1840”. Cambridge
Foucault, M. (nd). “Michael Foucault – Extracts from Discipline and Punish and Other Works”.
Vereen, EV. (2014). “Materializing US Security: Guantanamo’s Object Lessons and Concrete
Messages”. International Political Sociology. Vol 8,pp20-42.
