Discipline and Punishment Essay

Foucault takes into account both the body and the soul when defining punishment; while there are few ways to punish the body, the soul enables us to think about why the crime occurred and the motives become apparent. The crime's actions can now be investigated rather than subjecting the offender to a painful and lethal penalty. In contrast to the fact that punishment for one's spirit is administered in private, punishment for one's body is administered in public, according to Foucault. Foucault contrasted the more recent kinds of punishment with the older ones; the former involving more torture than the recent types of punishment, which seek to investigate the criminals before condemning them. In the current world, the goal of punishment is not to hurt the body but to train and reeducate the spirit (Foucault, 2012).

Function of Prison

Prisons are a rigorous and confined space, where the guard is meant to watch everything while regulating the usage of hours. Prisons are set within a disciplined society just like all our institutions including factories, schools and hospitals. Prisons emerged long before they were formally set up in the 18th century. Wrong doers had their movements restricted and their activities under surveillance in order to ensure that they stayed out of trouble. In Foucault’s view, the prison does not serve its purpose of correcting behavior instead the prison system only produces hardened criminals. Just like the previous centuries, the prison establishment only allows the gathering of a small group of people who can be controlled and put under surveillance (Foucault, 2012). Prisons are also used for a political profit of appealing to the public because the more prisoners there are, the more the public will accept police control.

Foucault’s Statement

According to Foucault, imprisonment was initiated in the 16th and 17th centuries, when people who were deemed criminals were subjected to surveillance and their movement controlled. However, it was just a method of the powerful to control people and impose their authority and influence among the rest of the population. Those in power use a justice system that they themselves put in place to defend their actions and to appeal to the masses in their political agenda. The truth is that prisons just harden the criminals but do very little to reform their behavior and train them on how to fit in the society once they serve time.

Carceral State

A carceral state is one planned based on the idea of a prison. The design of the city is meant to restrict people’s movement and freedom. The designs employ physical boundaries such as walls and fences to gain control of the living space and control over people’s activities. Furthermore, there are security cameras and checkpoints to ensure full scan of people coming in and going out of the state. Carceral states are prisons where the inhabitants have basic forms of freedom unlike the criminals behind bars (Foucault, 2012).

Critical Criminology

Real Purpose of the Criminal Justice System

According to Welch, the real purpose of the Criminal Justice System is to establish a correctional and rehabilitation system for criminals. The aim is to guide and reform convicted felons to the right and lawful path. The system is also responsible for handling criminal investigations and prosecutions. This includes fair investigations, giving fair case hearings, and making fair prosecutions. Regardless of the suspect’s criminal class and their political influence (Welch, 1999).

Critical Criminology

A critical criminologist is a term derived from the various criminological theories. These theories challenges the mainstream understanding of the Criminal Justice System. A critical criminologist is one who targets to establish the facts about the understanding of crime and punishment. This group of persons acknowledge the role for rightful punishment and rehabilitation for criminals. However, this group also ensures that justice flourishes and that no unlawful or inhumane act is suffered by inmates or suspects to a crime. Critical criminologists also advocate for fair punishment to all, regardless of their power or social class.

Capitalism and Crime

Although Karl Marx did not speak much on crime, his concepts and principles are largely being applied in the criminal justice system to drive the capitalism agenda. The criminal system is being used by capitalists to generate wealth from the cheap labor provided by the inmates. The prison system has evolved to business rather than rehabilitation centers. Welch states that prison sentences to criminals is highly influenced by their state of employment. Unemployed people are more likely to serve sentences compared to employed criminals (Welch, 1999). The argument here is that unemployed persons are more susceptible to participate in acts of crime, so as to generate income and provide the basic needs for themselves and any dependents.

Counties in the US are on a high competition to have the federal government establish federal prisons in their territory and near towns. This is because of the high funds from the government and the growth that will be witnessed in the local job market pool. Generating income from the establishment of correctional facilities creates the link between crime and capitalism.

Purpose of the Criminal Justice System

According to Welch, the Criminal Justice System is designed by the upper-class group of the social class to punish the poor and caution the rich. Welch states that when a poor person commits a crime, the said crimes are more often easily to establish and collect evidence to prosecute them. However, the crimes committed by the rich are mostly hidden and often go unrecognized. Such crimes include embezzlement, fraud or insider trading. These crimes are not easily detected and many of the rich criminals are still roaming free whereas the poor criminals are serving heavy sentences in prison (Welch, 1999). The system also is on many occasions cited to be an instrument to further the prejudice and discrimination against the races. Welch states that there is a higher probability of young African American person especially men, to be arrested and sentenced for a crime than it is for a white man.

Welch also raises the question of capitalism in the criminal Justice system. He states that the prison industries have been for a long time been used to develop the companies of the rich at the expense of the prisoners. He argues that the rich people or companies are growing their wealth by training and making inmates to work for them, either in production or in services such as construction. Welch states that the system has lost sight of the main purpose of its creation, to drive rehabilitation of inmates. It is now focused on the profit that can be generated from the inmates’ labor. He also states that many counties in the US are competing to have federal prisons established in their region so that they would benefit from federal funds and the employment a criminal rehabilitation center brings would bring. It is no longer essential to drive rehabilitation of the inmates, but create wealth from the cheap labor that the inmates offer.

References

Foucault, M. (2012). Discipline & punish: The birth of the prison. Vintage.

Welch, M. (1999). Punishment in America: Social control and the ironies of imprisonment. Sage Publications, Inc.