On Apr 1, 2009, at 3:36 PM, Miles Jackson wrote:
> Let's put Foucault's point bluntly: the purpose of the prison system
> is to create criminals and expand various social practices and
> discourse to "control" criminality. As far as I can see, the U. S.
> prison system is a wonderful case study that illustrates Foucault's
> point.
I find this a seductive explanation, but just how does it happen? Did Nixon sit down and plan it out when he unleashed the war on crime? And what about the role of politicians pandering to the "get tough" crowd of voters? In the U.S., the incarceration boom had pretty broad popular support.
Doug