Foucalt and Prisons

Foucault’s and Prison

According to Michel Foucault, the prison system is a failure.  He claims that prison produces delinquents as well as recidivists. There are many people who agree with him.  Yet there are more prisons now than ever before.  I believe the reason for this is because officials feel like there aren’t any other favorable forms of punishment available. I also think that society plays a key role in keeping prisons around.  Society may fear becoming victim to violence, if prisoners are released from their facilities.  In addition the crimes that criminals commit have become more violent which may be in response to the increase in weapons production.  The prison system is a vicious cycle.  Prisoners go to jail but when they get out communities are too afraid to hire them.  Yet employment is sometimes a requirement of release.   Also punishments such as probation and parole don’t necessarily work because the rules are so strict that the smallest mistake might land offenders back in jail.  Given my personal history with prison, I’m not sure if I can be totally objective.  Let me explain, my brother was sentenced to two life sentences eight years ago.  Yet there is no real sense that he’s incarcerated.  You see, my brother calls me every day all day from his own personal cell phone.  He describes the prison he’s at as a huge dorm room, complete with drugs, card games and women (the correctional officers).  In fact he claims the only difference from the inside (as he calls it) and out here is that we have access to fast food and they have access to junk food.  Incredulously my brother says that fast food is the single thing that they can’t get in prison.  For this reason I honestly question whether prisons can ever truly rehabilitate offenders.

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