A Modern Day Panopticon

        In class yesterday we talked about the Panopticon, which was originally designed by Jeremy Bentham in 1785 and analyzed by Foucault, who applied it to society as a whole. We spoke about its use in the recent film Guardians of the Galaxy, but I was wondering if there were any real examples of its utilization within the past century. The most recent example I could find was in the design of the Statesville Correctional Center in Crest Hill, Illinois, which was built in 1925 and is still used today. It is the only currently working example of the Panopticon in the U.S. The correctional center has two "roundhouses," each of which houses a tower in the center, surrounded by cells. A "fun" fact about the center is that it was also used for executions from 1928 to 1962; thirteen people were executed on the electric chair during this time, adding to the cruelty of the center. It was also the only center where executions were carried out when the form of capital punishment was changed to lethal injection until 1998.

        As Foucault states, "all that is needed, then, is to place a supervisor in a central tower and to shut up in each cell a madman, a patient, a condemned man, a worker or a schoolboy" (Foucault 97). It is interesting to know that this type of prison is still around today, as the intimidation tactic that it employs is effective, but damaging to its inmates, who believe that they may be constantly under watch. However, as Foucault observes, this is merely a reflection of the constant observation that we conduct of each other in society. Because of this, is living in the physical Panopticon really much different from living in the figurative Panopticon of society? Obviously, those of us who are not incarcerated do have much more freedom, but we are all under the same pressure to perform. We are told to act a certain way, and we are all under a microscope. Especially with the introduction of social media, we don't always know when we are being watched (for example, I am not aware that someone is scrolling through my Instagram photos until they like one of them, so as a sort of unwritten rule of social media, I should always put my "best foot forward" when posting pictures). Foucault is so right in comparing the prison to our lives; the societal pressure to conform is exactly like the Panopticon that he so acutely compares it to.