Prison System

Chapter Six: Foucault claims that there is a reluctance to be rid of the prison system. Why do you think this is so, given its failures, as described by Foucault?

          

In reading this short story by Michael Foucault, I discovered he had some very strong feelings about the prison systems. He truly felt that prisons actually enslaved criminals to the government instead of rehabilitating them. He feels that prisons are popular because of the failures they give birth to.

          Foucault felt like the prison system should teach an inmate a trade, and not issue meaningless tasks. He felt the task that were assigned were to further keep an inmate on an inmate track in life. I think Foucault was saying if you give a man bread he will eat for that day, but teach him to bake bread and he will eat his whole life.

He had a theory that the prison system was made up of 2 classes, the upper and lower. The upper class would be the guards on up the chain to government officials, and the lower class being the incarcerated. He said this system allows the upper class to further oppress the lower class, and train them to stay that way. This process is done most effectively by locking a person up, isolating them, and further controlling them by the means of economics. I think he was saying if you keep a man caged, he will act like an animal, and if you do not teach him a skill, he is doomed to go back to a life of crime in order to survive.

I think Foucault’s theory that there is a reluctance to get rid of the prison system may have some merit. Most offenders are doomed to be repeat offenders. The inmates seem to lack in education and skill, and if the prison system refuses to teach them in order to properly rehabilitate them, they are set up to fail. It keeps the hierarchy right where they want to be with their subjects tied down by oppression.

Foucault rationalized that the isolation placed upon the inmates, and being ruled and dominated with force at times, created monsters within the meekest of inmates. He didn’t stop there, he further claimed that this mind set spilled over into society as a whole and left two options. The first, if you resisted the deprivation and struggled with the constraints placed upon you by society, then you gained the label of being a criminal. The second option was if you succumb to what society wants and expects, then in doing so you lost your own identity. Foucault felt the loss of one’s identity was a far worse crime than rebelling what society sees as a norm.

I think we need a prison system. I think in a lot of ways it should be more regulated. There are prison systems that are way too lax and I feel this encourages repeat offenders. There is no fear of being incarcerated. They don’t have to work, worry about what to eat, or where to sleep. This concept keeps the doors of the prison revolving. The constant revolving door manages to stuff millions of tax payers’ dollars in the pockets of the government. The amount they receive is not the amount put back in to rehabilitate inmates. It keeps the hierarchy happy and they in turn build more prisons. If an inmate was forced to work, in order to learn a trade and earn his keep, I think this would spill over into the inmate’s non-incarcerated life. Education is the key to preservation, and I think that is the same point Foucault was making, only he did it much more eloquent than me. I feel like he almost felt the prison system was a conspiracy, and in a lot of ways it probably is. The higher class always wants the power, but we must remember that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Foucault makes a person think.