The prison was first a place to hold debtors or people awaiting trial. In the period of Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) prisons increasingly became a place of discipline via constant observation and repetative labor.
The French revolution made public punishment an increasing spectacle of public unrest, so social reform moved behind the prison walls. This raised questions that still challenge the the prison system to this day:
- Why put all the criminals together, they'll just form huge crime networks?
- That's punishment? They'll live better than an honest poor man!
- Taking away someone's freedom will not teach him how to act as a free man.

For some the routine and drudgery made reformed workers for capitalism.
But, what of the recidivists, the "career criminals" created by the prison system?
For them prison is even more advantageous for society:

"The people who become devoted to a life of crime might otherwise be causing worse problems. They might, for instance go into politics. The prisons are full of petty thieves who steal, again and again, from someone most likely as poor as themselves. Without the prison system as an education in this life, some of these people might generalize about their problems, AND THEORIZE ON THE VALIDITY OF THE VERY NOTION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY. Some of them might organize unions, or riots, or political parties. Instead, those who will not accept the prevailling ideology are systematically channeled into a life story that every penologist knows by heart: the hopeless recidivist, the permanent delinquent."

(Quote and paraphrases from Lydia Alix Fillingham: ""Foucault For Beginners". Writer's and Reader's Publishing, 1993, pp. 126-130.)



[edit on 23-2-2010 by halfoldman]