Ben McLeish - Prison, Punishment and Profit | Z-Day 2012 [ The Zeitgeist Movement ]
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0:00 - 0:03Before that I'd spent the last year researching
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0:03 - 0:06prison systems and general entities,
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0:06 - 0:08so I thought I'd take you on a journey through what I've found.
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0:09 - 0:11At the end I would like you to celebrate with me the fact that I can now leave
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0:12 - 0:15this disgusting, horrible, painful, dangerous system behind me;
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0:15 - 0:18and we'll all go out and have a drink and celebrate the fact that we,
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0:18 - 0:22ourselves, actually can leave it behind unlike some.
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0:22 - 0:25Fyodor Dostoevsky once said that one can measure
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0:25 - 0:28the degree of civilization in society by entering its prisons.
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0:28 - 0:31While this may be true, I think that in all senses
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0:31 - 0:35we see prison as separate from society, parallel to society,
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0:35 - 0:39not a product of that society but a neighbouring entity.
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0:39 - 0:44This is partly a product of the nature of the modern imprisonment paradigm:
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0:44 - 0:47a delineation of walls, barricades,
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0:47 - 0:50halted access in circumscription of its structures,
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0:50 - 0:54its necessary opaque methods of administration.
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0:54 - 0:58The anatomy of a prison system comes into existence
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0:58 - 1:01or is defined by its separation from its surroundings;
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1:01 - 1:03it's cut off from the external.
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1:04 - 1:06At the same time, these institutions we wish to understand
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1:06 - 1:11and the system as a totality, house what is seen by the general public
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1:11 - 1:15as an alternative population, a branch of humanity that has transgressed
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1:16 - 1:20whatever that society has placed into the paradigm of legal activity.
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1:20 - 1:23This perception aids us in divorcing the prison system
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1:23 - 1:28and the whole concept of the imprisonment system from our daily lives too.
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1:28 - 1:31Few problematic consequences arise, I think, from this.
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1:32 - 1:35First off, it has become very hard to criticize the prison system.
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1:35 - 1:39You are less likely to see the root causes and consequences of social issues
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1:39 - 1:41and the effect of social pressures on the people
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1:41 - 1:44who ultimately become inmates in the prison system
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1:44 - 1:49if you don't see the prison system as a product of a certain kind of society.
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1:49 - 1:51It's not independently involved,
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1:51 - 1:54and yet we quietly slip into the habit of this impression.
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1:54 - 1:58More specifically, and as I want to argue, all attempts at social criticism
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1:58 - 2:02of the method of imprisonment need to flow from an understanding
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2:02 - 2:05of the historical precedence that came to produce the prison.
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2:06 - 2:10This is rarely done academically and never in mainstream media.
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2:10 - 2:14This notion of separation also allows for the methods of the prison system
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2:14 - 2:18to be transferred to a general society whilst maintaining a certain doublethink
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2:18 - 2:20that these methods are not being used.
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2:20 - 2:22Ever-increasing and ever-powerful surveillance
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2:22 - 2:25is quite an embedded part of life now,
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2:25 - 2:29and yet it goes unnoticed by many because we are 'outside the prison',
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2:29 - 2:32therefore we must be free.
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2:32 - 2:37Comparisons of the school system with a prison are met with a priori cynicism
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2:37 - 2:41and are mostly made half jokingly by students who are only quietly aware
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2:41 - 2:45that the school system much more closely resembles the coercive organization
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2:46 - 2:49of prison than people would comfortably admit.
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2:49 - 2:53But, the reinforcer is there: You are not in a prison, you are outside;
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2:53 - 2:56and even though you may be in another social institution,
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2:56 - 2:58the logic and methods of the prison system
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2:58 - 3:01in your life are made to appear non-overlapping.
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3:01 - 3:04You should be thankful that you are not in prison.
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3:04 - 3:09This is a powerful enforcer against critical engagement with prison as well.
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3:09 - 3:13The 3rd and final effect of dividing up prison and society I want to dwell on
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3:13 - 3:16concerns the reform movement towards prison.
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3:16 - 3:18While it may seem an odd thing to say,
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3:18 - 3:21the debate against prisons' various failings or successes
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3:21 - 3:26is automatically framed as an argument for increasing its abilities.
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3:26 - 3:30The demand for reform, improvements, inspections, accountability
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3:30 - 3:35are all impulses of the same core values that gave birth to the prison itself.
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3:35 - 3:38Thus we easily slip into solving the problems of prisons
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3:38 - 3:42with a debate framed within the assumptions of creating more imprisonment,
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3:42 - 3:46in a sense that the attributes of surveillance, structured administration
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3:46 - 3:50and the demand for improvement and tracking of a subject that we see in the prison
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3:51 - 3:54are all reasserted on the prison itself, magnifying it more.
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3:55 - 3:59Let's give prison the context we need in order to understand it.
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3:59 - 4:01What came before the practice of the prison?
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4:01 - 4:06What happened to people caught in transgressions of the law in pre-carceral days?
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4:06 - 4:09What were the development pressures of imprisonment,
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4:09 - 4:12and how have they continued up to the present day?
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4:12 - 4:14What does it actually mean, in social terms,
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4:14 - 4:18to be living in a society that makes use of a prison system?
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4:18 - 4:21In his book 'Discipline and Punish | The birth of the Prison'
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4:21 - 4:25Michel Foucault recalls a famous case of public execution in 1757
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4:26 - 4:28of a regicide named Robert-François Damiens.
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4:28 - 4:30On the 1st of March, 1757,
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4:30 - 4:34Damiens the regicide was condemned to make the 'Amende Honorable'
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4:34 - 4:37before the main door of the church of Paris, where he was to be taken
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4:37 - 4:40and conveyed in a cart wearing nothing but a shirt,
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4:40 - 4:43holding a torch of burning wax weighing two pounds.
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4:43 - 4:46Then, in said cart, to the place de Grève
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4:46 - 4:49where on a scaffold that will be erected there, the flesh will be torn
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4:49 - 4:54from his breasts, arms, thighs and cleaved with red-hot pincers,
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4:54 - 4:58his right hand holding the knife with which he committed the said parricide,
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4:59 - 5:02burnt with sulphur; and on those places where the flesh will be torn away
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5:02 - 5:05poured molten-lead, boiling oil,
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5:05 - 5:08burning resin, wax and sulphur melted together,
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5:08 - 5:11and then his body drawn and quartered by four horses,
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5:11 - 5:14and his limbs and body consumed by fire, reduced to ashes
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5:14 - 5:17and the ashes thrown to the wind.
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5:18 - 5:21The account covers in detail the final moments of this goring.
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5:22 - 5:24Then the executioner, his sleeves rolled up, took the steel pincers
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5:25 - 5:27which had been especially made for the occasion
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5:27 - 5:30and were about a foot-and-a-half long,
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5:30 - 5:33pulled first the calf of the right leg,
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5:33 - 5:37then of the thigh, and from there, the two fleshy parts of the right arm,
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5:37 - 5:40then, at the breasts.
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5:40 - 5:43Though a strong, sturdy fellow, the executioner found it so difficult
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5:43 - 5:46to tear away the pieces of flesh that he set about the same spot
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5:46 - 5:49two or three times, twisting the pincers as he did so;
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5:49 - 5:53and what he took away formed at each part a wound about the size
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5:53 - 5:56of a 6-pound crown piece.
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5:57 - 5:59Stories like the one of Damiens are extremely common
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5:59 - 6:03for this time period and for the hundreds to thousands of years before it.
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6:04 - 6:06Indeed, in the pre-modern era we often find stories
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6:07 - 6:09of the beheaded, treasonous characters from history
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6:09 - 6:12having their heads placed on London Bridge's entrance.
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6:12 - 6:16The stories of Henry VIII, his misadventures towards his wives,
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6:16 - 6:18the methods by which Guy Fawkes was placed on the rack
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6:18 - 6:22and then ultimately hanged: These are common to our historical understandings.
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6:22 - 6:25I think it is with seemingly great relief
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6:25 - 6:28that many parts of the world have now abandoned public torture and execution.
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6:29 - 6:33On the face of it, this has been a humane move,
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6:33 - 6:36informed by design, not to see wanton, visceral bloodshed
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6:36 - 6:39performed by the State on its own people
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6:39 - 6:43in those societies that have abandoned either the death penalty
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6:43 - 6:46or any other overt public torture or execution.
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6:46 - 6:50However, before we move away from staged state violence,
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6:50 - 6:54the following points need to be made which help us understand this transition.
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6:54 - 6:57Public executions are just that: public.
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6:57 - 7:00As a spectacle, the event consists of a singular criminal
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7:00 - 7:03or defined set of criminals usually raised on a stage for better viewing,
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7:04 - 7:06surrounded by gazes of the onlookers.
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7:06 - 7:10In fact, there are historical precedence of crowds of expectant onlookers
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7:10 - 7:14rioting because a certain execution was held in private
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7:14 - 7:17or organized with limited or obstructed viewing.
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7:17 - 7:22Such was the expectation of the public to have a visible event.
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7:23 - 7:26Events were also explicitly ordered for
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7:26 - 7:28and performed by agents of the state.
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7:28 - 7:32The hanged man is not an aggressor so much as the showman for the crowd
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7:32 - 7:35and an employee of the state.
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7:35 - 7:39As is particularly the case with treason, the crimes that have been committed
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7:39 - 7:42are seen as against the monarch or the head of state.
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7:42 - 7:46The violence retribution that takes place is at once the expunging of the crime,
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7:46 - 7:50often symbolically as with Damiens whose hand held the knife
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7:50 - 7:53with which the attempted murder of the king was made.
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7:53 - 7:57It's also a reassertion of the power of the monarch or state head,
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7:57 - 8:00which has been undermined by the transgression of one of the laws
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8:00 - 8:03that the monarch has made, and which defines the power
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8:03 - 8:06to which the serfs are indeed subject.
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8:06 - 8:09The sovereign's power is acted out physically on the subjects
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8:09 - 8:12and the gaze of the onlookers at once empowers the event as theatrical,
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8:12 - 8:14noteworthy and central, whilst one would think
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8:14 - 8:18also forming a strong negative reinforcement to the witnesses.
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8:18 - 8:22This is what happens if you disobey the laws of the land.
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8:22 - 8:24To move away from this kind of punishment
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8:24 - 8:28to an organization of corrective institutionalization and surveillance
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8:28 - 8:31is often considered as one driven by the enlightenment
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8:31 - 8:35or a new set of human-based values and understandings towards human behaviour
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8:35 - 8:37or the nature of what we call 'evil'.
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8:37 - 8:39It is seen predominantly as the melioration
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8:39 - 8:43of the viciousness of the punitive mechanisms of the social order,
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8:43 - 8:49a more humane form of interaction between society and the criminal individual.
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8:49 - 8:52Indeed, the move from torture to punishment and imprisonment
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8:52 - 8:57as the main corrective function occurred in Europe in under 80 years,
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8:57 - 9:01making it a very speedy and almost sudden move in the force of punishment.
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9:01 - 9:05It demonstrates that large changes in the social organization can happen,
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9:05 - 9:08but in this case the move was not driven predominantly
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9:09 - 9:12by these values at all, but by something else.
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9:12 - 9:17The morphing of societal methods of treating transgressions occurred in tandem with
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9:17 - 9:19the development of an economy more closely founded
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9:19 - 9:22on the ideas of private property and ownership.
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9:22 - 9:25A reorganization of power occurred that relocated the point of application of power
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9:25 - 9:29from the body whose physicality was tied up in a more agricultural
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9:29 - 9:32and labour-based economy to what people often term as 'the soul'
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9:33 - 9:36or the more inner light of the delinquent products of that society.
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9:36 - 9:40Theft and other property-related crimes belong to the physical,
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9:40 - 9:43but once more ideological crimes come into play, like an up-tick
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9:43 - 9:46in the amount of fraud that occurs as a market-based economy
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9:47 - 9:50and a monetary paradigm begin to dominate, the more the power becomes effective
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9:50 - 9:53if it is relocated to the behavioural
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9:53 - 9:56rather than the physical side of the human being.
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9:56 - 9:58Consequently, we see the following:
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9:58 - 10:00The gallows are largely replaced by handcuffs,
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10:01 - 10:04and the public spectacle that was overt, punitive violence
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10:04 - 10:06and state termination of bodies has now been replaced by
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10:06 - 10:10an inverted spectacle that is worth noting.
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10:10 - 10:13Where once the lone criminal was gazed upon by a multitude,
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10:13 - 10:16by and by the institutional form of correction
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10:16 - 10:20has inverted this model into the modern recognizable prison organization:
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10:20 - 10:25a multitude of prisoners, all confined, separated, a crowd of individuals
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10:25 - 10:29rather than a throng surrounding a central, all-seeing tower
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10:30 - 10:32which allows constant supervision of the inmates,
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10:32 - 10:36but whose watching eye is itself not identifiable.
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10:36 - 10:39It is unseen, invisible. Indeed, as Foucault himself put it:
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10:39 - 10:42"Visibility is a trap."
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10:42 - 10:45This then was the invention of the 'Panopticon'
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10:45 - 10:48by a cheerful chap called Jeremy Bentham (there he is),
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10:48 - 10:53a structured excluding building that would house always-visible criminals;
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10:53 - 10:56and although the Panopticon is most famous for its central tower
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10:56 - 11:00and often round nature of the buildings,
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11:00 - 11:03actually over time surveillance has become digital,
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11:03 - 11:07and as such the ever-present centre can now be aided by CCTV
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11:07 - 11:11and similar measures rather than the need for direct line of sight.
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11:11 - 11:14So, even though today's prisons look rather different to this model of operation,
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11:14 - 11:18we can see how surveillance is the thing that has most empowered itself
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11:18 - 11:21in our punitive measures; and we can also see
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11:21 - 11:24that those measures are totalising, born of a central tower,
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11:24 - 11:27now morphed into a hi-tech control room.
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11:28 - 11:30No longer are the crowd watching the criminal.
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11:30 - 11:35A crowd of criminals is now being watched, isolated independently by cells
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11:35 - 11:39and the larger layout of the prison;
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11:39 - 11:43and yet made uniform by literally, uniforms,
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11:43 - 11:45shared rules and statuses.
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11:45 - 11:49They can be both entirely separated from the world in solitary confinement,
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11:49 - 11:53and yet have every move and behaviour inspected and supervised.
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11:53 - 11:57In fact, the word 'super-vision' has its roots in literally overseeing;
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11:57 - 12:00those two meanings of regulating an event
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12:00 - 12:04as well as having complete views of it are preserved in the modern phrase.
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12:05 - 12:08Such a system is always defended (especially by politicians)
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12:08 - 12:12as something that works in reducing crime and making society safer.
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12:12 - 12:16Indeed, the inbuilt, psychological effect of locking up human delinquents
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12:16 - 12:20is to bestow an ill-conceived feeling of being protected from them,
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12:20 - 12:23and indeed this feeling of needing protection itself becomes an engine
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12:24 - 12:27for the maintaining of such a system of punitive function.
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12:27 - 12:31Incarceration is also broadly characterized in two ways
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12:31 - 12:35which maintain its persistence as an accepted function in society.
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12:35 - 12:37One is the negative reinforcement:
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12:37 - 12:40People believe that peoples' experience of prison,
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12:40 - 12:42of being deprived of liberty, should correct that behaviour
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12:43 - 12:46so that upon their release they will integrate with that society,
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12:46 - 12:48or others exclaim "Some are just so bad
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12:48 - 12:51that you should just lock 'em up and throw away the key!"
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12:51 - 12:54This view essentially chooses to see the prison system
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12:54 - 12:57as a permanent container for the permanently dangerous.
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12:58 - 13:01It is maintained in the pro-imprisonment rhetoric
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13:01 - 13:04that prisons ought to be pacifying the criminals,
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13:04 - 13:08to be normalizing them so they can be potentially released in most cases.
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13:08 - 13:10This, of course, presupposes
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13:10 - 13:13that they be non-violent enough to be trusted with freedom.
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13:13 - 13:17One of foundations of being able to coexist with the wide population
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13:17 - 13:20is the curbing of violent behaviour towards the self and others;
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13:20 - 13:25such an impulse and tendency should be implicitly generated by a system
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13:25 - 13:29that is built to be the normalizer of human beings for social coexistence.
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13:29 - 13:32Yet, I want to impress upon you the following:
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13:32 - 13:36The prison system, its structure, its foundational ideology of punishment
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13:36 - 13:41through negative reinforcement, its governing legal mechanisms,
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13:41 - 13:44and its criminal, administrative and interpersonal hierarchies
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13:44 - 13:46are implicitly those that instill, promote,
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13:46 - 13:49require, enable and affect violence.
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13:49 - 13:52It is no longer the priority of the prison,
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13:52 - 13:54nor was it likely ever the main priority
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13:54 - 13:57to sustainably and correctly adjust human beings
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13:57 - 14:01to a society in a cooperative manner; and even if it were,
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14:01 - 14:03the main, actual effect of prison is in large part
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14:03 - 14:06the worsening of human social integrity.
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14:06 - 14:09I'll break this down into the following subheadings:
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14:09 - 14:121) Prison's meta-social effects
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14:13 - 14:16This is the evidence of prison's negative effect upon all inhabitants
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14:16 - 14:19including the guards, whether they are criminals or not
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14:20 - 14:22(that's a key point that I'll explain in a moment).
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14:22 - 14:252) Decisions and governing methods
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14:25 - 14:28The methods by which decisions are arrived at within the correctional body;
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14:28 - 14:32that body, including the legal system, the courts and their associated costs,
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14:33 - 14:36the rehabilitative organizations that work in tandem with the prison
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14:36 - 14:38during the release and transition of prisoners back home,
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14:39 - 14:41and the hardware, nutrition,
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14:42 - 14:44buildings, telephony and everything else.
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14:44 - 14:47This sounds distant from the topic at hand, but you'll see shortly
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14:47 - 14:51that all of these considerations lie at the heart of what correction actually means,
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14:51 - 14:53how we run it, and in what direction.
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14:53 - 14:55What are we building in there?
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14:56 - 14:591) Prison's meta-social effects
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14:59 - 15:03James Gilligan, head of the Harvard University Department
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15:03 - 15:07for the Study of Violence, spent decades working in prisons.
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15:07 - 15:11He has stated amongst many others than prisons are, in fact, engines of violence
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15:11 - 15:13which can turn non-violent criminals into violent ones
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15:13 - 15:16right in time for their release.
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15:16 - 15:19Several factors play into this effect, one key element being
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15:19 - 15:24the implicit shame and debasement of becoming subjected to overt coercion.
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15:25 - 15:28Playing into this for some prisoners is the social stigma of being a criminal:
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15:28 - 15:31You are opposed to the social structure as an individual.
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15:32 - 15:36Indeed, the ordered and structured communal nature of prisons
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15:36 - 15:39establishes a powerful educational environment for criminals:
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15:39 - 15:42a school of crime, which spits out shamed, deprived
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15:42 - 15:46and dangerous individuals into a society that understands neither them
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15:46 - 15:49nor the institutions from which they emerge.
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15:50 - 15:53Equally, those sent to prison leave on the outside families
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15:53 - 15:56that are more greatly impoverished by the loss of a breadwinner,
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15:56 - 15:59thus there is the built in downgrading of social cohesion
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15:59 - 16:03at the very point of which the system of punishment meets society.
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16:03 - 16:05Further crime and the psychosocial effects
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16:05 - 16:08of the shame of an imprisoned family member greatly distort an already
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16:09 - 16:13very likely problematic and stressful background of that same family.
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16:13 - 16:16Of course, we abhor violence
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16:16 - 16:19precisely because it generates more violence,
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16:19 - 16:23but closing off many violent people within a confined space
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16:23 - 16:25produces violent effects.
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16:25 - 16:27To quote Gilligan from 'Psychiatric Quarterly'
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16:27 - 16:30describing the Massachusetts' prison system:
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16:30 - 16:33"By the 1970s, the Massachusetts' prison
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16:33 - 16:36had degenerated into a virtual war zone.
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16:36 - 16:39In addition to riots within the maximum security prison alone,
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16:39 - 16:42there were periods in which there was an average of a murder a month
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16:42 - 16:46and one suicide every six weeks in a 600-man prison.
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16:46 - 16:50The decade as a whole ended with a total of more than 100 violent deaths
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16:50 - 16:54in one prison alone, and throughout the prison system as a whole,
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16:54 - 16:57there was an epidemic of riots, arson, hostage taking,
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16:57 - 17:01murder followed by suicide and other violence in which inmates,
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17:01 - 17:06prison staff and even visitors were being killed, raped and injured.
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17:06 - 17:08The federal court investigation that followed
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17:08 - 17:12determined that much of this violence was precipitated by untreated,
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17:12 - 17:17undiagnosed mental illness. Much of it was itself precipitated
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17:18 - 17:21or at least exacerbated by conditions within the prison."
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17:21 - 17:25Gilligan, who found himself placed in charge of this chaos,
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17:25 - 17:28instigated over 10 years of psychological treatment
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17:28 - 17:30and therapies that encouraged and nurtured self-respect
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17:30 - 17:32through positive reinforcement.
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17:33 - 17:35It was a value shift in the approach of rehabilitation.
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17:35 - 17:39He reported "During the first 5 years of our program there were no riots
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17:39 - 17:42at any prison, though there were two serious hosting taking incidents
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17:42 - 17:45both of which we were able to resolve without any deaths.
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17:45 - 17:47No staff members or visitors were killed,
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17:48 - 17:50though 7 inmates throughout the prison system as a whole
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17:50 - 17:52died from homicide or suicide.
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17:52 - 17:56During the second five years there were no riots, no hostage taking,
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17:56 - 17:58one homicide and two suicides.
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17:59 - 18:03That is, there were some entire years with no violent deaths."
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18:04 - 18:07Gilligan's project was unfortunately unraveled
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18:07 - 18:10after 10 years with the refocusing of the new governor
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18:10 - 18:14on reintroducing prisoners to the joys of busting rocks.
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18:14 - 18:18We see the system resetting down to its origins
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18:18 - 18:22with a greater focus on structural violence regardless of provable outcome,
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18:23 - 18:25but for this assertion to be valid,
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18:26 - 18:29that the prison system is itself inherently a nurturer of violence,
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18:29 - 18:33one would have to see non-violent people turn violent in a prison, for one;
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18:33 - 18:37but most helpful would be to see that the encouragement of violence
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18:37 - 18:41might also manifest in a controlled scenario with non-criminals.
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18:41 - 18:45For the first point, that non-violent people may become violent,
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18:45 - 18:49the US prison population is now at some two million people in strength.
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18:49 - 18:52This population quadrupled in the 1980s
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18:52 - 18:56fueled by the war on drugs' mandatory minimum sentencing,
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18:56 - 18:59which prolongs sentences on average to a preset term or longer,
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19:00 - 19:02and by 'truth-in sentencing' which more or less eliminates
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19:02 - 19:06the ability for rewarding better behaviour with parole or similar programs.
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19:06 - 19:09The 'three strikes' law also ensured that repeat offenders
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19:09 - 19:12for crimes including drug-related crimes (non-violent ones)
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19:12 - 19:16would see a quicker jail time now, as well as they'd be in for longer.
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19:17 - 19:20Around half of US convicts are in [prison] for non-violent offences
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19:20 - 19:22(around 20% drug offences);
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19:23 - 19:25but as James Gilligan reminds us, most prisons do more
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19:25 - 19:28to stimulate violence and crime than they do to prevent it.
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19:28 - 19:30Prisons have often been termed 'Schools of Crime';
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19:31 - 19:33I'd call them 'Graduate Schools of Crime'.
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19:33 - 19:36People often have to become violent in order to survive in them;
-
19:36 - 19:39or even if they're not attacked by others,
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19:39 - 19:42they are subjected to conditions of degradation, humiliation, intimidation
-
19:42 - 19:46and threats that I think might drive the most saintliest of people
-
19:46 - 19:49to become more violent in response.
-
19:49 - 19:53But, what if there's no criminals in prison but simply ordinary people?
-
19:53 - 19:56Does the problem of violence disappear?
-
19:56 - 19:59The theory that prison precipitates violence would predict
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19:59 - 20:03that ordinary people should become distorted by the institution.
-
20:03 - 20:06Thankfully, this has been tested and proven valid,
-
20:07 - 20:09most notably by Dr. Philip Zimbardo
-
20:10 - 20:13and his Stanford Prison Experiment.
-
20:13 - 20:16Making use of a disused cellar wing of [a] Stanford University building,
-
20:16 - 20:19he and some colleagues constructed a rudimentary cell block
-
20:19 - 20:22with locks on the door and secret audio surveillance so that inmates
-
20:22 - 20:26could be monitored for their reactions to the environment and other inmates.
-
20:27 - 20:29An ad was placed in the paper asking for paid volunteers
-
20:29 - 20:34to take part in a 7-14 day experiment at $15 per day.
-
20:35 - 20:38Those chosen for the experiment were picked for their mental stability:
-
20:38 - 20:42non-aggressive and non-dominant characteristics.
-
20:44 - 20:4524 local males in all
-
20:46 - 20:49were randomly assigned to be either prisoners or guards.
-
20:49 - 20:51Prisoners were stripped of their name and given a number.
-
20:51 - 20:54They were given hairnets and other ways of shaming them,
-
20:55 - 20:58and they were deloused. There wasn't real delousing powder;
-
20:58 - 21:03in fact, that whole delousing process is mostly to shame them on the way in.
-
21:03 - 21:06The rules stated: A guard's orders must be obeyed;
-
21:06 - 21:09timetables must be kept; house rules were enforced
-
21:09 - 21:13and learnt by rote for public recitation, either in order or in part.
-
21:14 - 21:17The resulting outcome of this was a practical 'reign of terror'
-
21:17 - 21:21by the guards who began with tiresome and deliberately tedious exercises
-
21:21 - 21:26such as reciting their prisoner numbers backwards, forwards, in reverse, etc.
-
21:26 - 21:30But, as these mentally stable, ordinary boys
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21:30 - 21:33slipped further into their roles as domineering or the domineered,
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21:33 - 21:36more cruel results became apparent.
-
21:36 - 21:39Clashes between inmates and guards, hunger strikes, disobedience,
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21:40 - 21:43destruction of prison property and inter-prisoner unrest
-
21:43 - 21:46soon gave rise to essentially forms of torture,
-
21:46 - 21:49cruelty, sleep deprivation and more.
-
21:49 - 21:54One inmate folded after two days of subjection and was replaced.
-
21:54 - 21:56All forgot it was an experiment.
-
21:56 - 22:00One of the rules even stated that it would not be referred to as such.
-
22:00 - 22:03Even Zimbardo (as a fictional prison superintendent)
-
22:03 - 22:07ended up seeking snitches, convincing upset prisoners to stay on
-
22:07 - 22:10and subject themselves further, etc.
-
22:10 - 22:12The experiment collapsed after five days,
-
22:12 - 22:14and does it remind you of anywhere?
-
22:14 - 22:16Google thinks so:
-
22:17 - 22:18It says Abu Ghraib.
-
22:19 - 22:22Hand-in-hand with Zimbardo's experiment
-
22:22 - 22:26comes the direct association with Stanley Milgram, whom we've had mentioned today;
-
22:26 - 22:29and indeed Milgram and Zimbardo were at one time high school friends.
-
22:29 - 22:31Milgram's experiment showed that over 90% of people
-
22:32 - 22:34who were placed in the experiment would apply what they believed
-
22:35 - 22:37to be mortally dangerous electric shocks to unseen victims,
-
22:38 - 22:42when commanded to do so by a white-coat-uniformed head of the experiment.
-
22:42 - 22:44Zimbardo shows us that ordinary people within a prison structure
-
22:45 - 22:46can produce tension and violence.
-
22:47 - 22:50Depersonalization runs right through the whole schema of command,
-
22:50 - 22:53and coercion, and power administration within a structure.
-
22:53 - 22:58We turn the ordinary into exactly the kind of distorted creature
-
22:59 - 23:02by treating them in a distorted way.
-
23:02 - 23:06Milgram, on the other hand, shows us how people can be led to punish others.
-
23:07 - 23:10As such, we have to decode the behaviour of the brutal prison guards,
-
23:10 - 23:13not as one of corruption of the prison methodology,
-
23:13 - 23:16but in fact another symptom of its effect on human beings
-
23:16 - 23:19regardless on which side of the law they stand on.
-
23:20 - 23:22Part ll: Decisions and Governance
-
23:23 - 23:27What steps are we taking to adapt prison? What are we adapting it towards?
-
23:27 - 23:29What governs the development of prison now?
-
23:29 - 23:33Many would contend that it would still be the eradication of criminal behaviour
-
23:33 - 23:36or the paying of a social debt in some way.
-
23:36 - 23:40Since my claim is that the culture is what births the prison,
-
23:40 - 23:43we should also be able to predict the following:
-
23:43 - 23:47A culture in society rooted to a great extent in the profit mechanism
-
23:47 - 23:51should see its prison system reflect this tendency
-
23:51 - 23:54of profit before every other consideration,
-
23:54 - 23:57i.e., collusion, fraud, and so on, in a similar manner.
-
23:58 - 24:00So, it comes as no surprise
-
24:00 - 24:03that we do find the evolution of privately-run prison
-
24:03 - 24:07as a powerful dominant force in the system of correction today.
-
24:07 - 24:12American entities Wackenhut and CCA (the Correction Corporation of America)
-
24:12 - 24:15and their international subsidiaries in Australia and elsewhere
-
24:15 - 24:19are now prominent, but much well less known than one would think,
-
24:19 - 24:23sold into society as 'cheaper alternatives' than state-run institutions,
-
24:23 - 24:27but being more 'efficient' because of corporate backing.
-
24:27 - 24:31CCA, for example, is now at the point where an offer is on the table
-
24:31 - 24:33to run the entire correctional apparatus
-
24:33 - 24:36in the 48 states of the United States.
-
24:37 - 24:39A key element of the offer
-
24:39 - 24:43is the promised occupancy rate of at least 90%.
-
24:44 - 24:48In other words, we are now measuring the success of the prison system
-
24:48 - 24:51by economic indicators that run counter
-
24:51 - 24:54to the welfare of the inmates and the wider population.
-
24:54 - 24:59It is now valued by its larger size rather than its smaller size.
-
24:59 - 25:03It is valued by the money it saves, not the lives it saves.
-
25:04 - 25:07The maintenance of at least a stable prison population
-
25:07 - 25:11and at best a growing prison population
-
25:11 - 25:15has become built into the welfare of thousands of satellite industries.
-
25:15 - 25:18Two million prisoners eat six million meals a day,
-
25:18 - 25:21meaning literally a captive audience for catering services.
-
25:21 - 25:24The telephony company Sprint has made large contracts with prisons
-
25:24 - 25:27to provide communication services. Inmates get sick,
-
25:27 - 25:31allowing for private health companies to thrive servicing the population.
-
25:31 - 25:34Wackenhut and CCA trade their stock on Wall Street
-
25:34 - 25:37based on the size of the prisoner population,
-
25:37 - 25:40the larger the better for the economy.
-
25:40 - 25:43Now, I already mentioned the 3 US laws:
-
25:43 - 25:47the Three Strikes Law, Truth in Sentencing, Mandatory Minimum Sentencing,
-
25:47 - 25:49all of which have an effect on prison population.
-
25:49 - 25:53It's interesting to note that these laws and many like them
-
25:53 - 25:56are actually drafted by an organization called
-
25:56 - 26:00the American Legislative Exchange Council (amusingly ALEC, for short).
-
26:01 - 26:04Hundreds of state laws are passed each year
-
26:04 - 26:09under the banner of being the 'Unsung Heroes' of American public policy.
-
26:10 - 26:12ALEC states that its agenda is to:
-
26:12 - 26:17promote free markets, small governments, state rights and privatization.
-
26:17 - 26:19During these closed meetings,
-
26:19 - 26:22hundreds of delegates from the prison industrial complex like Wackenhut
-
26:22 - 26:28pay large dues to sit at the table together and eek-out pre-written templates
-
26:28 - 26:31for state laws, that are then brought back by the state reps
-
26:31 - 26:34to their own states, where they're then dressed up
-
26:34 - 26:37and passed as the conclusions of that state representative
-
26:37 - 26:40instead of the corporation gaining off their passage into law.
-
26:40 - 26:44Do you now see why I don't trust the idea of government?
-
26:45 - 26:47It's built in!
-
26:47 - 26:49[Applause]
-
26:52 - 26:55Truth in Sentencing and widely spread Mandatory Minimum Sentencing
-
26:55 - 26:59and the Three Strikes Law have all been promoted heavily into acceptance
-
27:00 - 27:03by ALEC's Criminal Justice Task Force, which included CCA
-
27:03 - 27:06(which now claim as of last year to have left ALEC), and others
-
27:06 - 27:10in a bid to insure a growing and robust prison population
-
27:10 - 27:15which in turn insures the viability of the private prison enterprises involved.
-
27:15 - 27:19Further (it gets better), forced labour, either for a pittance
-
27:19 - 27:23or no pay at all, means that companies now regularly use prison labour
-
27:23 - 27:27to produce the products more cheaply in order to sell at a higher cost
-
27:27 - 27:30(or greater profit) to the non-imprisoned population.
-
27:30 - 27:33There's only a mild difference there, isn't there?
-
27:33 - 27:37This is more economically efficient if profit is your guiding light,
-
27:37 - 27:40not if we're talking about the viability of prison
-
27:40 - 27:43as a tool for social rehabilitation.
-
27:43 - 27:47This should be termed what it is, Ladies and Gentlemen: Slavery 2.0!
-
27:47 - 27:50It is the wholesale refocusing of the measure of success
-
27:50 - 27:54of this system into economic indicators that are based on deprivation,
-
27:54 - 27:57restricted access and control in the first place.
-
27:57 - 28:01It has spread to corporate prisons in the UK, Australia and beyond.
-
28:01 - 28:03If prison is a microcosm of the society
-
28:03 - 28:06as James Gilligan has stated in his book 'Preventing Violence'
-
28:06 - 28:10and which Dostoyevski essentially alludes to in my opening quotation of him,
-
28:10 - 28:14then we can expect this to magnify as our paradigm becomes more predatory
-
28:14 - 28:17and as the dominant for-profit forces seek to own
-
28:17 - 28:20and deflect media attention and influence policy
-
28:20 - 28:23as we have come to expect from every other avenue
-
28:23 - 28:26which has been taken, and profitized, and commodified,
-
28:26 - 28:29and altered into a machine for economic viability
-
28:30 - 28:32instead of viability.
-
28:33 - 28:35[Applause]
-
28:41 - 28:43What's the alternative then?
-
28:43 - 28:46About two years ago I was speaking with a cab driver (as I'm wont to do)
-
28:46 - 28:49about the Utah man sentenced to death,
-
28:49 - 28:51who chose to be killed by firing squad,
-
28:52 - 28:54in 2010!
-
28:54 - 28:58Now, seguewaying into punishment and its effects, I suggested
-
28:58 - 29:01that the violence of the penal system encourages the violence of more crime,
-
29:01 - 29:05more social division, more social ills. The cab driver replied:
-
29:05 - 29:08"What do you want to do then, give 'em all a medal?"
-
29:08 - 29:10This dualistic vision of reward and punishment,
-
29:11 - 29:13is quite easy to fall into,
-
29:13 - 29:15but we are trying to solve the problem of crime,
-
29:16 - 29:18not ignore it or celebrate it.
-
29:18 - 29:22Solve it, not manage it within a power framework that perpetuates
-
29:22 - 29:25the violence that gave birth to the criminal behaviour in the first place
-
29:25 - 29:30and foster a society that less provokes crime and violence to begin with,
-
29:30 - 29:33not simply extend the prison bandage further.
-
29:33 - 29:37As the work of James Gilligan, Wilkinson and Pickett in the book
-
29:37 - 29:40'The Spirit Level' and the work of many others now makes it clear:
-
29:41 - 29:45to mistreat a human being, to deprive, limit and shame a human being
-
29:45 - 29:48is a sure-fire way of developing more aberrant and violent behaviour.
-
29:48 - 29:52Shake a glass jar with ants in it and they will fight.
-
29:52 - 29:56Shake it as a punishment, they'll just fight some more, ad infinitum.
-
29:57 - 29:59So, I took up the cab driver's challenge
-
29:59 - 30:03and looked for alternative prisons or other approaches.
-
30:03 - 30:07I didn't have to look too far. Nestled in the mountains of Styria in Austria,
-
30:07 - 30:11in the little mining town of Leoben, lies a prison so unrecognisable
-
30:11 - 30:14that it actually made viral email rounds in 2008.
-
30:15 - 30:18Comments to the effect of: "Perhaps I should go and commit some crimes
-
30:18 - 30:22so I can get into this holiday camp!" were rife in the description
-
30:22 - 30:25and even ended up echoed under the byline of a New York times article
-
30:25 - 30:28that described the prison and talked to the architect.
-
30:28 - 30:30So, I thought I'd go and have a look at this place
-
30:30 - 30:33and ask the prison warden what his thoughts on the feasibility, function
-
30:34 - 30:37and the role of prison were. So, Ladies and Gentleman, I went to prison,
-
30:37 - 30:39(which I'm sure you're pleased about.)
-
30:39 - 30:42Magister Manfred Giessauf and the Chief Guard
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30:42 - 30:44both gave two generous hours of their time,
-
30:44 - 30:47allowed me to record our interview and even showed me around the prison!
-
30:48 - 30:51It features a library, built-in artworks into the wall-space
-
30:51 - 30:54that were designed to be added to by prisoners, exercise rooms
-
30:54 - 30:58and outdoor areas which allow prisoners to become used to seeing distance;
-
30:58 - 31:00that's something you don't get, and people forget.
-
31:00 - 31:02We take distance for granted.
-
31:02 - 31:06The whole edifice is glass structured to deliberately allow light in.
-
31:06 - 31:09Consequently the prisoners, not shrouded in darkness,
-
31:09 - 31:11have at least some chance to feel that they're in an institution
-
31:12 - 31:14that is designed for rehabilitation.
-
31:14 - 31:17Consequent to the design, the courses on social reintegration
-
31:17 - 31:21offer to prisoners the basic foundation of the prison's modus operandi.
-
31:21 - 31:25Prisoner violence is much lower, as are the statistics on absenteeism
-
31:25 - 31:28for prison guards; it's about a quarter of what absenteeism is
-
31:28 - 31:32for guards in normal prisons, so they're also not suffering.
-
31:32 - 31:34The basic tenet of this prison is literally unavoidable,
-
31:35 - 31:37sandblasted onto the wall, it states:
-
31:37 - 31:40"Jeder, dem seine Freiheit entzogen ist, muss menschlich
-
31:40 - 31:42und mit Achtung vor dem Menschen
-
31:42 - 31:45innewohnenden Würde behandelt werden",
-
31:45 - 31:49"All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity
-
31:49 - 31:52and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person."
-
31:52 - 31:56That comes from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
-
31:57 - 31:58[Applause]
-
31:58 - 32:00Yeah, give them a round of applause!
-
32:05 - 32:08(They're lovely people. They didn't even question
-
32:08 - 32:10what I was asking them for.)
-
32:10 - 32:13Leoben Correctional Center's budget was about €50 million.
-
32:13 - 32:15It was completed in 2007,
-
32:15 - 32:18and had been commissioned through an architectural contest, actually.
-
32:18 - 32:21"But for €50 million," I asked, "why not just build more prisons
-
32:21 - 32:23or save money and build a cheaper prison?
-
32:24 - 32:27After all, isn't being economical to do with saving money,
-
32:27 - 32:31cheapening processes, cutting services, trimming the fat?"
-
32:31 - 32:32The answer came:
-
32:32 - 32:36"It all depends on if you count in the social cost
-
32:36 - 32:39to the social economy. You can always build cheaper prisons.
-
32:39 - 32:43You may well build a prison whose edifice is cheaper;
-
32:43 - 32:45but if you run a prison like the American Supermax Prisons,
-
32:46 - 32:48you build human time bombs.
-
32:49 - 32:51They are released at some point too, and who knows
-
32:51 - 32:54what the social costs are of such an act.
-
32:54 - 32:58At the very least, we cannot release prisoners who are worse
-
32:58 - 33:00than they were when we received them."
-
33:01 - 33:05I'll admit that Leoben is not a complete test case for prison reform or alteration.
-
33:05 - 33:08There are no 'lifers' in this system,
-
33:08 - 33:10and highly violent criminals are not sent there.
-
33:10 - 33:13Ironically, most of the criminals are there for monetary crimes,
-
33:13 - 33:17crimes which will most likely be repeated once they're on the outside
-
33:17 - 33:19since they're not likely to receive good job prospects
-
33:19 - 33:23and most likely have large debts for which they went to prison to begin with.
-
33:23 - 33:26It may be a gilded cage, but it is still a cage,
-
33:26 - 33:30and still limited in its use and abilities by the overall functioning
-
33:30 - 33:35or indeed the dysfunction of the society that ends up populating its buildings.
-
33:35 - 33:38It is still a bandage, but a bandage we can learn from,
-
33:38 - 33:42whose values come from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights:
-
33:42 - 33:45the rights of human beings, therefore,
-
33:45 - 33:48being the starting point from which to work and not profit
-
33:48 - 33:51or cheapness or anything so absurdly slavish
-
33:52 - 33:55as the US, UK or Australia's private prison enterprises.
-
33:57 - 33:59As a species, we have to understand
-
33:59 - 34:02that the desire to see others imprisoned is simply the same violence
-
34:02 - 34:04that we see in crime.
-
34:04 - 34:07The punishment we inflict on prisoners is the same violence
-
34:07 - 34:10we claim to be condemning by acting in that way.
-
34:10 - 34:12Above all, it needs to be realized
-
34:12 - 34:15that prison isn't there to solve any problems.
-
34:15 - 34:19It's another outgrowth of violence and systematized power and control.
-
34:20 - 34:22To solve crime, to live in a non-violent society
-
34:22 - 34:26is to live in a society in which prisons are eradicated.
-
34:26 - 34:30We concentrate our efforts on the positive therapies that prevent violence,
-
34:31 - 34:33and at the same time strive for a society
-
34:33 - 34:36that prevents violence from the outset.
-
34:36 - 34:39To do so is to solve the prison issue.
-
34:40 - 34:42[Applause]
-
34:46 - 34:49To base a physical institution on human rights is to seek
-
34:49 - 34:54the physical modification of that edifice in line with human needs:
-
34:54 - 34:58sunlight, space, social interaction; to base it on function
-
34:58 - 35:01rather than form requires the ignoring of the balance sheet
-
35:01 - 35:05in favour of the successful function of the system upon human beings
-
35:05 - 35:08and not the bottom line of some corporation that benefits some small section
-
35:08 - 35:11of society's populace that happen to be working for them at that time.
-
35:11 - 35:14Of course, it's not their fault, is it? The whole point of this
-
35:14 - 35:17is that they're also prisoners of the debt system which is then used
-
35:17 - 35:20and systematized and creates the prison system.
-
35:20 - 35:22Above all, to solve the problem of crime
-
35:22 - 35:26is not to build more prisons like is continually said
-
35:26 - 35:28on those Question Time things,
-
35:28 - 35:31any more than the solution to a disease is to spend
-
35:31 - 35:34more time in a hospital building, rather than treat the illness
-
35:34 - 35:38that is debilitating, obstructing and undermining the body.
-
35:38 - 35:40The solution to disease is the eradication
-
35:40 - 35:44or healing of its non-functioning elements.
-
35:45 - 35:48The solution to the disease of crime and the illness of society
-
35:48 - 35:50is a ground-up reorientation of social function
-
35:50 - 35:53to halt the consequences of social malfunction,
-
35:53 - 35:55or what we call crime.
-
35:55 - 35:58Until then, we change nothing
-
35:58 - 36:01until we change ourselves and what we value; and we make it known.
-
36:02 - 36:06Currently, we service problems as cheaply and as forcefully as possible.
-
36:06 - 36:09As such, prison is a cheap service of a problem
-
36:09 - 36:12not a correct fix to our issues of crime.
-
36:13 - 36:16Broadly speaking, prison is the social distillation
-
36:16 - 36:21of our attitudes to the human mind and the individual.
-
36:21 - 36:25One day, if our cultural assumptions and economic principles grow
-
36:26 - 36:30to a solution-oriented scenario with respect to social cohesion
-
36:30 - 36:33and true sustainability, our future population
-
36:34 - 36:37will look back at our era with arguably more horror
-
36:37 - 36:40than we now look back on the prior societies of torture
-
36:40 - 36:44and brute violence like we did at the beginning of this presentation,
-
36:44 - 36:47for we had the scientific understandings of what works
-
36:47 - 36:49and we did not act upon them.
-
36:50 - 36:53I want you to feel the gaze of future humanity
-
36:53 - 36:57looking back onto our era now, looking back onto when you were alive.
-
36:57 - 37:00Place yourself in the future and look now, backwards,
-
37:00 - 37:02with the horror they will feel.
-
37:02 - 37:05Until we become the groundwork for that future population,
-
37:05 - 37:08they will not stop looking at us in horror, disbelief
-
37:08 - 37:12and with regret and pathos, for they will understand us better
-
37:12 - 37:15than we understand ourselves and our prisoners now.
-
37:15 - 37:18For them, indeed, we are all prisoners.
-
37:18 - 37:20Now, thank you very much, I'd like to thank all the speakers
-
37:20 - 37:22who spoke here today.
-
37:22 - 37:24[Applause]
-
37:32 - 37:34They do it for free!
-
37:36 - 37:37They do it because it's fun.
-
37:37 - 37:41I'd like to thank all of you for having come along.
-
37:41 - 37:44It's very kind of you; it is not taken for granted, ever.
-
37:44 - 37:47We are going to go down the road to a pub! Please join us.
-
37:47 - 37:50It's only about 300 yards away on the other side of the road; it's on a corner.
-
37:50 - 37:53Sorry, I've forgotten the name of it. We'll be there all night,
-
37:53 - 37:57drinking and answering questions and asking you questions, as well.
-
37:57 - 37:58Thank you again.
-
37:58 - 38:00[Applause]
-
38:00 - 38:02Thank you, Ben.
- Title:
- Ben McLeish - Prison, Punishment and Profit | Z-Day 2012 [ The Zeitgeist Movement ]
- Description:
-
*Please sign up for our main Mailing List:
http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/ *"Visibility is a Trap." - Michel Foucault
The modern incarnation of the prison system is evaluated at its root value set, and core functions. Discussed are the origins of prison in torture and public spectacle, its inversion into modern incarceration models, and the morphing of the carceral model into one which reflects the dominant economic value system - profit before intended function, and its resulting violent social costs.
Additionally, prison's effects upon non-criminals (including guards) are detailed in order to demonstrate the system's wholly undermining effects upon social integrity, regardless of criminality.
The solution to crime is not more prisons, but the wholesale reorientation of society to a supportive, human-centered global citizenry, where the causes of crime are dealt with by the removal of stresses on the individual level, and the replacement of a competitive, divisive economic-social model with one of support, collaboration and rational, humane global village.
Main Sources:
Books:
Discipline & Punish - Michel Foucault
Violence - James Gilligan
Preventing Violence - James Gilligan
The Lucifer Effect - Dr Phillip Zimbardo
The Show of Violence - Dr Frederic Wertham
Zero Degrees of Empathy - Simon Baron-Cohen
The Spirit Level - Wilkinson and Pickett
Value Wars - John McMurtry (esp. Part II - Unlocking the Invisible Prison, pp 70-78)
Journal Articles:
Private Prison Management - Panacaea or Pretense? - Sarah Vallance
Prison's Dilemma: Do Education and Jobs Programmes Affect Recidivism? - Sedgley, Scott et al
The Psychopharmacologic Treatment of Violent Youth - Gilligan and Lee
The Last mental Hospital - Gilligan
Other:
Site Visit to Leoben Correctional Center, Austria - Video Language:
- English
- Duration:
- 38:06