Sample Essay On Panopticism

In relation to socialism theories panopticism is denoted as a building structure designed in a circular shape which has a tower in the Centre that is surrounded by a wall in the outside. Occupants of these cells were termed as social misfits based on the laws, morals and guidelines of a given society.
The book Foucault, M. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison does not focus on history of prisons than the tale of hare and rabbit. It focuses more on the competition of animals. Foucault writes about power of normalization in the society of the west .The perpetrators confined in these prisons are in a network of interlocking means, methods that Foucault reveals. The justice system of criminal, environment of prison, educational/opportunities available for training during imprisonment and the minimum options of employment on dispensation all combine to encase the perpetrator’s life. The perpetrator’s agency is meaningfully impaired for their life balance regardless of where they come from (Foucault 19).
Foucault’s talks about the rules and regulations of certain areas which affect different people in different ways depending on their social and economic class. He traces how the prison system was introduced in the seventeenth century. The difference and similarity between his life and the life of the offender. It also focuses on the way things have changed in prisons during the old days and the modern world. The way people perceive things about prisons and how people get there between ancient days and the modern world is totally different. People have always known that offenders are taken to prison but in this book he clearly shows that over the time things have changed and the many ways offenders get punished.
Prisons nowadays have laws but these laws to some extent can be manipulated especially by people who are financially stable. It is hard to imprison people of a certain social class in the same cell with others. Rich people are separately imprisoned in places with good living conditions while the others are put in normal cells with very harsh conditions. The panopticism prisons were mainly meant to hold offenders and watch them throughout their period in prison. Prisoners lived the same type of life. Nowadays the rich are allowed to live in good houses with all the luxury only that they are guarded but they still have all the communication with their people. They are only limited to their freedom.
Historically, prisoners were viewed as misfits in the society. They were segregated and were not allowed to mingle with other people. Their cells were very restricted areas and even family members were not able to visit them. The prisoners were treated as slaves whereby they were given hard labor mainly as a punishment for the offences they committed. These days prisoners’ are viewed in a very different angle. They are seen as people who need to be helped to change their ways. They are allowed to mix with other people, for example, churches visit prisons and hold church services in these prisons. They can be visited by family members and even brought special food to from home.
This demonstrates a paradigm shift in the prison department as the rules governing the institution have become more lenient and accommodative. The flexing of this rules and giving prisoners some freedom has since worked in reinforcing good morals in a modest yet very efficient way.