prison

[Carrol Cox]

Didn't someone back in the early 19th century -- perhaps Fourier,
claim that one could judge a society by the way it treated its castoffs,
which would include criminals as well as various specially oppressed
groups, etc. etc.? I have a vague, probably false, recollection of
something like this. Can anyone remember anything more precise?

Carrol

Doug Henwood wrote:


> Michael Hoover wrote:
>
> >in _Discipline & Punish_, Foucault reminds us to judge a society by its
> >prisons...
>
> And, though this quote has become a bit of a cliche, Foucault's
> questions are always worth asking: "Is it surprising that the
> cellular prison, with its regular chronologies, forced labour, its
> authorities of surveillance and registration, its experts in
> normality, who continue and multiply the functions of the judge,
> should have become the modern instrument of penality? Is it
> surprising that prisons resemble factories, schools, barracks,
> hospitals, which all resemble prisons?"
>
> Doug