Page 18 - All About History - Issue 52-17

Prisons

Sanitation
Each cell has a kind of toilet composed of a small shaft in the
wall between every two cells covered by a cast-iron seat. A ‘slight
screen’ would enable inmates to have some privacy. Cells would
also have a water supply for drinking. These facilities removed one
primary means of contamination and spread of infection, and were
also one reason why men of social standing might be reluctant to
take up the post of inspector.

THE PANOPTICON

DESIGN CONCEPT, 18TH CENTURY

The Panopticon was an ambitious, albeit
unsettling, architectural design. It was intended
to bring about reform of those held within its
walls, whether they were prisoners, the poor,
workers or the sick. The mechanism of reform was
surveillance, and the very name of the structure
referred to this: pan (all) and optic (seeing).
The original plans were outlined by the
philosopher Jeremy Bentham, who published
a series of his letters in Panopticon: Or The
Inspection House in 1787. Bentham claimed the
structure composed a ‘new principle’, which The cell
could be applied to any institution. The idea
Cells were large enough for any
derived from his younger brother, Samuel, who work undertaken by the inmate
was searching for ways to train inexperienced and designed so inmates could
workmen, building ships for the Russian navy. be separated completely from
In these letters, however, we can see Bentham one another. Prisoners would be
unable to communicate or plan
adapting the concept for a proposed penitentiary.
escapes. Cells would be warmed by
His publication showed his belief in the power of a system of flues circulating heat
architecture to modify people’s behaviour. from central internal fireplaces.
The purpose of the building was to keep This was an innovation not
available at the time to prisoners
inmates under surveillance for the duration of
who often suffered a great deal
their stay, or at least make them believe they were
from the cold. The cells would also
being constantly watched. Bentham promoted the be ventilated.
Panopticon as a new way of obtaining power – not
just over physical labour and movement of people,
but also of ‘mind over mind’. It is that idea which
has captured the imaginations of historians and
the public ever since.
The Panopticon has been used to represent
extensive social changes, not just with regard to
institutions, but also CCTV and other modern The cell window
surveillance technology. This is important because Each cell had a large window on
the outside wall to let light in to
the historical power of the Panopticon cannot be
the cell and internal space of the
explained by its operation, as it was never actually
Panopticon facilitating visibility
built. The government turned away from private from the centre. This would also
prisons run for profit, and Bentham was extremely make the view more interesting
disappointed, saying: “They have murdered my from the inspector’s lodge, whether
you were the inspector or someone Intermediate or annular area
best days.”
visiting out of curiosity. ∑ did not This was the physical space surrounding the inspection
Despite no true Panopticons being built, suggest visitors were problematic lodge or tower in the centre of the Panopticon and the
its unusual design has influenced the likes of but rather they improved the level individual cells on the circumference. In Bentham’s
Strangeways Prison in Manchester, England, and of inspection as they composed estimate, this area would be four metres deep. Light
Presidio Modelo in Cuba. Bentham’s vision of part of a “tribunal of the world.” would pass through it from the cell windows to the
inspector’s lodge in the centre of the Panopticon.
control has reverberated down the centuries.
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