The design of a modern prison must consider - among many other factors - the possibility that a handful of men (the guards) can control a very numerous prison population. In 1791, philosopher Jeremy Bentham proposed the panopticon, an ideal penitentiary that allowed a single guard to observe hundreds or thousands of prisoners without them knowing they were being watched. This concept has influenced the construction of prisons for two centuries and constitutes a true machine for dissociating "seeing" from "being seen".
From Dungeons to Reform
For centuries, prisons were simply dark and damp dungeons where detainees were thrown. Questions such as human rights or the rehabilitation of criminals were practically unknown, and imprisonment was simply a punishment that, the harder it was - always according to the mentality of the time - the more effective it would be. But at some point humanity realized that this type of "treatment" - when it did not end in the death of the detainee due to the inhuman living conditions to which he was subjected - rarely made criminals into good people.
Prisons began to be built differently, providing larger spaces and brighter cells, common yards, the possibility that inmates could receive formal education, etc. Obviously, all this change implied the need for a large number of guards, who were in charge of - among other things - permanently watching the detainees.
Bentham's Design
From the economic point of view, the smaller the ratio between guards and prisoners, the less money it would cost to keep a prison running. The ideal case would be when a single person could control an entire prison. With this premise in mind, philosopher Jeremy Bentham proposed in 1791 a new prison model called the panopticon, which took into account psychological aspects not considered until that moment.
Instead of the typical rectangular building with rows of cells aligned on the longer walls in one or more floors, Bentham thought of an outer ring formed by cells and a single central surveillance tower. This allowed each cell to have natural light (provided by an opening in the outer wall) and for its interior to be visible from the central tower. One or two guards installed in this structure could watch hundreds of cells without having to walk down long corridors or go up and down stairs.
The Psychological Effect
But the most interesting thing about Bentham's idea was the psychological aspect involved. In his design, the central column had special windows that allowed the jailers to watch the cells without the prisoners knowing when they were being observed. Not knowing if they were being watched or not, the prisoner was forced to behave always as if he were, and the guards could be absent for some time without the prisoners noticing.
This "Big Brother effect" was helped by the design of the rest of the building, since details had been taken into account such as the inclusion of labyrinthine connections between the tower's rooms to avoid flashes of light or noises that could betray the presence of an observer. In his own words, "the power must be non-verifiable", becoming - even in its absence - something more powerful than an army of guards in sight.
Influence and Legacy
Although at that time this design did not have much influence on the construction of prisons, the concept was applied decades later on several occasions. The Cárcel Modelo in Madrid, Spain; the Cárcel de Caseros in Buenos Aires, Argentina; or the Penitenciaría de Lima in Peru - among several others - apply in one way or another the concepts of Bentham. A trained observer will also discover that many military buildings, factories, or educational institutions also have designs that are based to some extent on the idea of the panopticon.
As we said before, the psychological mechanism behind Bentham's proposal is extremely interesting, since among other things it eliminates the relationship that normally exists between the action of seeing and the fact of being seen. Among others, the French philosopher Michel Foucault analyzed in detail the concept of the panopticon in his 1975 work "Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la prison" (Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison). In it one can read:
…the main effect of the panopticon is to create in the inmate a state of consciousness about his permanent visibility that ensures the automatic functioning of the system. [...] surveillance is permanent in its effects, even if it is discontinuous in its action; the perfection of the system should be such that it makes continuous surveillance unnecessary; this architectural apparatus should be a machine for creating and sustaining a power relationship independent of the person who exercises it; in short, the inmates must be caught in a situation of submission of which they themselves are the oppressors. To achieve this, the prisoner must not be observed too much, for he will not know when he is being observed, nor too little, for he must feel the effects of surveillance. In view of this, Bentham placed the principle that power should be visible and non-verifiable. […] The panopticon is a machine for dissociating seeing from being seen really: in the peripheral ring, one is seen completely, without ever being able to see the watchman; in the central tower, on the contrary, one can see everything without ever being seen.
As can be seen, the proper design of a prison can do much more for its correct functioning than increasing the number of guards. However, the concept of the panopticon goes much further, appealing to the inmate's unconscious to avoid the need for permanent control of his actions.
https://old.neoteo.com/el-experimento-del-muneco-bobo-violencia-real-en-los-ninos-o-pura-manipulacion-video/
