Panopticism by Foucault - Essay Example

The main similarity between prisons and schools, hospitals, and working places is their functions and structure. The main resemblance is that the role and aim of the administration include the responsibility and control exercised by the state and by the nation. The relationship existing among levels of hierarchical administration, and the methods employed by each, constitute the major issues of policy. The fundamental criterion of efficiency in the administration of schools is to be found in the provision of educational opportunities for children and youth.

The main function of prisons is a reformative function aimed to improve behavior patterns of criminals and their attitudes towards the society. The arrangements which make for high efficiency include freedom from partisan political control, the services of a competent professional staff, adequate support, satisfactory buildings and equipment, and programs adapted to the needs of individuals and to the society which the particular institution (a hospital or prison) are organized to serve. In this case, "prisons resemble factories, schools, barracks, hospitals" (Foucault 1995) based on universal and general principles applied to every organization.

The approach suggests that organizations can be viewed as essentially the same and that there are few differences between organizations that cannot be overcome by the application of general principles. For instance, similar to regormative functions of prisons, "educational psychology is supposed to correct the rigours of the school, just as the medical or psychiatric interview is supposed to rectify" (Foucault 1995). It is not surprising that "prisons resemble factories, schools, barracks, hospitals" because bureaucratic hierarchical structure is a result of historical development of social institutions and control functions of the state.

All institutions mentioned above are 'systems'. In this case, they are affected by its environment and have a structure which has both formal and informal elements. The structure covers how activities are grouped together, the number of levels in the hierarchy, the extent to which authority is decentralized to divisions and units, and the relationships that exist between different units and functions. All organizations have some form of more or less formalized structure which has been defined as comprising 'all the tangible and regularly occurring features which help to shape their members' behavior'.

Structures incorporate a network of roles and relationships and are there to help in the process of ensuring that collective effort is explicitly organized to achieve specified ends. The basic characteristic of prisons as a system is that it transforms inputs into outputs within its environment. The components of the system include the Importation of energy and throughput. Following Foucault "Panopticism of every day may well be below the level of emergence of the great apparatuses and the great political struggles".

Similar to hospitals and schools, factories and barracks, prisons include key organizational processes - the major information gathering, communication, decision-making, matter/energy transporting and matter/energy converting actions of the organization's individuals and