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Jurisprudence " The Panopticon is a priviledged place for experiments on men, and for analysing with complete certainty the transformations that may be obtained by them. [It] functions as a kind of laboratory of power" .Michele Foucault. Discuss Bentham's Panopticon1, envisioned as a correctional facility2, was an ingenious architectural scheme. Designed in the shape of a pentagon, the prisoners' cells3, each theatrically "backlit" by a high window, faced an open space dominated by an observation tower4. The tower windows had shades which could be drawn in such a way that the detainees did not know whether they were being watched at a particular time or not. Since the prisoners were constantly subjected to this field of total visibility, they would internalise the prison guard5. Panopticon - the Greek neologism signified 'all-seeing place' - was all about vision and transparency operating one-way only: in the service of power. The panoptic mechanism's asymmetric...

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