The panopticon is the form of the ideal prison...
designed around 1787
by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham.
Over 300 prisons around the world follow this model.
A circle of diameter at 100 feet.
Around the perimeter of this circle stretch cells.
Each cell is 9 feet deep...
and 48 per floor.
Each cell has a toilet, a bed, and space to work.
The cells rise six floors.
On every other floor, there is a surveillance corridor...
in which a guard may survey two floors of prisoners.
The guard watches the prisoners.
But the prisoners do not see the guard
and do not know when they are watched...
And must therefore act as if they were always watched.
In the center of the space, there is an auditorium...
in which the prisoners may assemble to be lectured.
A wall of screens may rise surrounding the chapel...
And separating the prisoners from seeing into it...
or from seeing each other from across the void of the empty space in middle.
Spiral staircases ascend through the space.
And an iron and glass frame rises
through the space and vaults over the chapel.
This completes the panopticon,
the form of the ideal prison.
“To say all in one word, the panopticon will be found applicable, I think, without exception, to all establishments whatsoever” - Jeremy Bentham
