A New Mechanics of Power

But power did not exert itself in this manner forever. A transformation occurred that appeared to prefer less violent methods of disciplining rather than simple torture. Foucault explains the day to day routine of a prison community in Paris and compares it to the spectacle. The prison proceeds like clockwork with activities intended to enrich the prisoners physically, mentally and spiritually through work, education and prayer. This is shown through the prison schedule.

"At twenty minutes to eleven, at the drum-roll, the prisoners form into ranks, and proceed in division to the school. The class lasts two hours and consists alternatively of reading, writing, drawing and arithmetic…

At seven o’clock in the summer, at eight in winter, work stops; bread is distributed for the last time in the workshops. For a quarter of an hour one of the prisoners or supervisors reads a passage from some instructive or uplifting work. This is followed by evening prayer" (6-7).

This attention, effort and care to discipline all parts of the convicted rather than only the body marked a change in the penal system. No longer did power appear as a source of pain and agony but instead as a shaping force for the entire person. Foucault writes of this change that “we have, then, a public execution and a time-table…they each define a certain penal style. Less than a century separates them. It was a time when, in Europe and the United States, the entire economy of punishment was redistributed” (7).

This economic redistribution was apparent not only in punishment but also throughout the entire judicial process. Previously during the reign of the monarchs the head of state played the parts of investigator, jury and judge all at once. The new system showed a distribution of these operations to different actors. “The power of judging has been transferred, in whole or in part, to other authorities than the judges of the offence” (22). But though the judge seems to wield less control over a case, it is still left to him to judge more than the guilt of the accused. As was shown above in the case of the farm hand accused of sexual misconduct, the judge must take into consideration medical health both physical and mental, as well as social and economic factors when judging a case. The treatment of the insane or mentally compromised appears as more than just a sentence:

"And the sentence that condemns or acquits is not simply a judgment of guilt, a legal decision that lays down punishment; it bears within it an assessment of normality and a technical prescription for a possible normalization. Today the judge – magistrate or juror – certainly does more than judge" (21).

Clearly the breadth of information considered within the case expands. This can be attributed to the will to knowledge, as was identified above with regard to the scientific discourse on sexuality. Here again we have a pervasive and scientific inquiry into the mind of the criminal; the state looks to expand its influence from physical pain to the rest of the person, taking a more holistic approach. As mentioned previously, the judge of expanded breadth still wields less control over his office. Foucault writes that

"Throughout the penal procedure and the implementation of the sentence there swarms a whole series of subsidiary authorities. Small-scale legal systems and parallel judges have multiplied around the principal judgment: psychiatric or psychological experts, magistrates concerned with the implementation of sentences, educationalists, members of the prison service, all fragment the legal power to punish; it might be objected that none of them really shares the right to judge; that some after sentence is passed, have no other right than to implement the punishment laid down by the court and, above all, that others – the experts – intervene before the sentence not to pass judgment, but to assist the judges in their decisions" (21).

The judging process has expanded in territory but become fragmented in operation. This provides a clear parallel to the power distributed through scientific discourse on sexuality. The vocabulary and subjects change but the operation expands and is decentralized.