Prison as spectacle from "summary" of Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault

Although it seems like the public is not involved in the new form of punishment anymore, what lies beneath is an entire machinery that consists of surveillance, spectacle and archives. In this system, imprisonments operate as a performative element, becoming part of public behaviour shaping societies.

Prison is not just a method of getting rid of lawbreakers but also serves as a way to demonstrate power and repress even more people through control. The whole process involves observing and monitoring inmates with the help of a scientific bureaucracy, making sure rule breakers and deviants stay away from mainstream society.

Prisons can be found everywhere nowadays, from local police stations down to private homes that are equipped with their own punitive measures! Such non-domestic prisons become an extension of those oppressive states whose ultimate goal is to discipline individuals into perfect citizens.

New forms of imprisonment emerge every day – some of them quite inventive and strange. Whether it's enforced isolation on remote islands and submerged vessels, or simply osteopathic exercises designed for painful self-reflection, the methods employed by jails become increasingly grotesque caricatures of justice.

The times have changed since the era of public and stage-managed executions, remembrance of which has been kept alive in our popular culture either via movies or books. We now have prison systems where prisoners live under disciplinary rules without the social pressure they used to receive in the past.

More than anything else, we must remember that the purpose of incarceration isn't necessarily to keep criminals away from society, but rather to produce docile bodies who will conform to accepted norms. This is done mainly through exploiting issues such as overcrowding, hunger and lack of medical care, putting all inmates at risk.