Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison | Study Guide

In Discipline and Punish Foucault traces the development of the modern prison system through the legal and political history of France. The prison, he argues, embodies a view of justice that makes it fundamentally different from older forms of punishment, such as public executions and torture. In Foucault's analysis prisons are places of discipline: their purpose is not necessarily to prevent or even punish crime so much as to change the habits of offenders. Although Foucault wrote extensively about power relations in public and private life, Discipline and Punish remains his best known single work. Its insights are applicable not only to literal prisons but to any system—schools, hospitals, workplaces—in which order is established through an enforced routine.