Foucault Summary of Panopticism

Foucault begins this section of his book, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison by introducing the readers to the measures that had to be taken during the end of the seventeenth century when a plague appeared in town. He continues on to inform of us of the standard procedure. After everyone is closed off in their house from the rest of the town they are to show themselves in the window, so that syndic can keep track of all the people in the town during the time of the plague. He later goes on to give us Bentham's Panopticon and the principles that it was based off of: "at the periphery, an annular building; at the center, a tower; this tower is pierced with wide windows that open onto the inner side of the ring; the peripheric building is divided into cells, each of which extends the whole width of the building" (225). The Panopticon, used in prison, is to instill the feeling that the inmates will always be watched, but will not know when or by who, giving the inmates the incentive to always be on good behavior. Foucault claims that "It (Penopticon concept) can in fact be integrated into any function" (233). Functions that are mentioned as schools, hospitals and prisons. The Panopticon can show the relationship between power and discipline, and it can be infused into our modern day society.