Essay On Panopticon Prison

The first house of corrections can be traced back to 1596 in Amsterdam. This idea came about after a

12-year old boy was sentenced to death for theft and the government sought a more humane means to

deal with petty criminals. The house of correction or workhouse was an institution built around the idea of rehabilitative value of regular work and the formation of “habits of industry”. Workhouses were frequently in the form of a hollow square, much like the convents and hospitals of the time. In fact, many were located in buildings once used for such purposes. Prisoners would work and sleep in common rooms with no privacy. Wealthy prisoners might be lodged in private rooms. Though there were many jails and workhouse built throughout Europe in the 1600s and 1700s, only a few had strong

architectural features or unique methods of treatment.
The adoption of cellular confinement first came about in a modern sense at the casa di correzione established in the hospice of San Michele in Rome in 1704. The papal authorities had knowledge of the Dutch workhouses. The building, designed by Carl Fontana, was a rectangular structure with 30 outside rooms or cells arranged on three tiers with balconies or galleries on each level. The cells contained a mattress and had a latrine, a window, and a solid door with a small opening. These sleeping rooms faced a large central hall which contained the workroom, chapel and dining room. The boys, worked in silence shackled by leg chains manufacturing goods for the papal state.
Another notable house of correction was constructed in 1772 in Austria, under the Empress Maria Theresa. Known as the maison de force at Ghent, this building was regarded as the first large-scale penal institution in which the architecture was used to assist in the treatment philosophy. The plan was a large octagon formed by eight trapezoidal units. Each trapezoid was self-contained and each unit reserved for specific type of offender. Ghent was unique in its management because it put into practice:
Night isolation of prisoners, separation of the sexes, and separation of the same sex according to categories based on age, degree of offense, and length of sentence.

By the end of the 1780s the public began to become aware of the deteriorating conditions of many prisons across Europe and the Americas. John Howard travelled extensively across Europe and wrote detailed observations of prison conditions in his book State of Prisons, first published in 1777. The operation of prisons and jails at that time were often a money-making operation for an official with little
government oversight. As a result, buildings were often in disrepair, overcrowded, and unsanitary. Prisoners were rarely provided with food and had no means of hygiene. There was little supervision or control over prisoners. Corruption was rampant. The subsequent reform that occurred focused on designing facilities that allowed for constant surveillance and thus freed prisoners from corruption or abuse. Another focus of this reform was health of the prisoners. There was great concern for proper sanitary conditions, proper ventilation, and clean drinking water.
Based on these considerations a number of new prison structures were devised. The three most prevalent layouts were the circular, polygonal, and radial plans.

The most forceful advocate for circular form for prisons was the 18th century criminal law reformer and social philosopher Jeremy Bentham.

He proposed a Panopticon prison. The circular design consisted of a guard’s tower in the center surrounded by barred cells in a circular formation. By this means guards could have continuous, unseen surveillance both visually and acoustically. Prisoners would never know if they were being watched and in theory behave to avoid punishment. The Panopticon design would have many critics and allies in subsequent centuries. Many years later, Michel Foulcault would write that”… the Panopticon is an ideal architectural figure of modern disciplinary power. The Panopticon creates a consciousness of permanent visibility as a form of power, where no bars, chains, and heavy locks are necessary for domination any more”. Proponents of Bentham’s design felt that is was a “tool of oppression and social control”. This radical design was never permitted to be built at the time in Britain, but would be later realized in several modified circular designs in the 1880s as well as at Illinois Penitentiary near Joliet and Presidio Modelo in Cuba in the 20th

century.

In the United States the prison system was struggling with the same concerns Howard was identifying in Britain. The Pennsylvania Quakers devised a philosophy of total isolation of each prisoner night and day.
Solitude would serve several purposes: It was punishment of course, but it would allow for reflection and contrition and protect the gullible from contamination by more high-level criminals. It would also prevent escape plots and attacks on prisoners and guards. Religious instruction, and working in the cell were also requirements.
A new penitentiary was authorized by the state for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 1821 and the Philadelphia reformers devised a physical structure of the prison through the routines they expected prisoners to take part in. Eastern State Penitenetiary