The Panopitcon

The Panopitcon, a disciplinary and confinement mechanism that allows all those locked up to be viewed at any given time by one supervisor. Its architectural structure has a high tower in the center of a wide ring, the tower is equipped with wide windows that open onto the inner side of the ring. The outside ring is divided into individual cells, with 2 windows, one facing the center and another opposite for light to get in. With one person stationed at the center they have the ability to constantly observe and organize every inmate. In a passage from his book Discipline and Punish: The Birth of Prison called “Panopticism”, Michael Foucault tells of a society struck with plague and invested with Lepers, where they use the idea of Panopticism
The seeing machine was once a sort of dark room into which individuals spied; it has become a transparent building in which the exercise of power may be supervised by society as a whole” (Foucault 607). Foucault is explaining the purpose and how it works saying that any ordinary person can come to the watchtower and fulfill the role of supervisor. Also, with the supervisor’s ability to observe any inmate at all times plant the idea in their head that they are always being watched and cannot do anything bad or try to escape at all, visibility is a trap. The idea of Panopticism expresses two forms of discipline; discipline blockade, which is the locking up of inmates, and discipline mechanisms, a functional mechanism to make power operate more efficiently. It sets the precedence that the inmates behave at all time
However, it is not economically the best way execute it, if the captives think they are always being looked at but cannot see the one supervising, thus they do not act up and defy any rules. If they cannot see who is supervising them, why is it even necessary to keep someone supervising them at all times. It just adds an unnecessary cost which makes in less economical. In the current day in age, the Panopitcon has seen advancements due to the increase technology; the supervisor in the center of the Panopitcon can now just simply be a video camera recording everything that is going on. The last question that arises is how is education suppose to be spread if each individual is separated and locked up in different cells never getting the chance to interact with anyone at all. The messages that the supervisors may instill in them could be called “education” or it could be called corruption, one example is teaching inmates that 2+2 doesn’t equal 4. With the ability to “educate” any of these people inside the Panopitcon can lead to