lecture eight - prisons

Question 1

the carceral archipelago

Answer 1

prison is not isolated - it is embedded in schools, factories, hospitals, and in the military

Question 2

production of delinquency

Answer 2

prison does not simply punish crime - it produces a class of “delinquents”

crime becomes categorized + prisons stabilizes that category

Question 3

the leper exclusion

Answer 3

power comes from banishment and binary divison (pure/impure)
- power operates by casting out

Question 4

the plague victim

Answer 4

inclusion under surveillance through continuous observation
- power operates through internalized discipline

Question 5

the plague town

Answer 5

foucault’s historical scene

• strict spatial partitoning
• individual registration
• total administrative control

Question 6

bentham’s panopticon

Answer 6

• central watchtower
• peripheral cells
• permanent visibility

utilitarian logic: maximize social order at minimal cost and reform through rational discipline

surveillance as rational, humane and cost-effective reform

Question 7

leviathan frontispiece

Answer 7

• sovereign composed of individual bodies
• sword (war) + crozier (religion)
• city below is empty with exception of two bodies

Question 8

internalization of power

Answer 8

from external coercion to self- discipline

discipline produces ‘docile bodies’ and economically productive subjetcs

Question 9

panopticon as a diagram of power

Answer 9

this theory is applied to schools, factories, hospitals and military

surveillance becomes diffuse, institutional and normalized

Question 10

three metaphors of power

Answer 10

leprosy – exclusion (sovereignty)
plague – surveillance (discipline)
smallpox – statistical regulation (security)

Question 11

what are risk assessment tools

Answer 11

actuarial instruments predicting likelihood of reoffending

used in bail, sentencing, classification, and parole

Question 12

the PIC

Answer 12

prison industrial complex

Davis defines it as a network of relationships between: corporations, government, media and political agendas

Question 13

corporate profit

Answer 13

private prisons, corporate suppliers to prisons, prison labour as cheap labour and military tech converted to policing

Question 14

racialization

Answer 14

disproportionate incarceration of black american’s with criminalization of surplus labour

Question 15

military industrial complex + PIC

Answer 15

the prison industrial complex is symbiotic with the military industrial complex
- shared technologies
- shared logics of control
- shared profit motives

Question 16

limits of reform

Answer 16

Davis warns that reform rhetoric cans tabilizs prisons
- better prisons =/= fewer prisons

Question 17

prison or jail

Answer 17

for sentences under two years
also hold remand
managed y provinces

Question 18

penitentiaries

Answer 18

for sentences of two years or more
managed by the federal government

Question 19

structured intervention units (SIU)

Answer 19

minimum 4 hours out of cell daily
minimum 2 hours of ‘meaningful human contact’
daily health-care visits
independent review mechanisms

Question 20

why were SIUs created

Answer 20

prolonged solitary confinement violates sections 7 and 12 of the charter
– indefinite segregation unconstitutional

Question 21

principles of prison (foucault)

Answer 21

1. isolation
2. prison labour
3. time as medicine

Question 22

seven universal maxims of the good penitential condition

Answer 22

1. transformation of individuals’ behaviour
2. convicts must be isolated or categorized
3. penalties must be suited to individuals
4. work is essential
5. education of convicts
6. corrections officers must have moral qualities
7. incarceration must be followed by supervision and assistance

Question 23

provincial correctional facilities

Answer 23

custodial sentence of less than two years

operated by the province under the relevant legislation

Question 24

federal institutions (penitentiary)

Answer 24

custodial sentence of two years plus a day

operated by correctional service of Canada under the Corrects and conditional releases act

Question 25

remand/ pre-trial detention

Answer 25

holding those in corrections facilities while they are awaiting trial or sentencing

Question 26

indigenous peoples in prison

Answer 26

indigenous adults accounted for 1/3 of all adult admissions to prisons, while only representing 5% of canadians indigenous youth account for 50% of youth admissions to custody

Question 27

prison costs

Answer 27

federal, provincial and territorial governments spend over $5 billion/year on corrections -- 80% of cost is spent on custodial or lock up facilities

Question 28

representation

Answer 28

gender: incarcerated males outnumber women 10:1 race: indigenous people comprise about 23% of the prison pop while only representing 4% of canadian pop. African canadian comprise 9% of the federal prison pop while only 3% of the general pop