PANOPTICON,

OR,

A Memoir upon the construction, on a new principle, of Houses of Inspection and particularly of Work-houses.*

THE author (Mr. Bentham) has composed on this subject three volumes, in duodecimo, which have been printed, but not published. They consisted of fragments, of successive additions and corrections, according as his ideas became more developed and as farther inquiries furnished him with fresh materials.

The following memoir was extracted from this work in the form of a discourse and was sent by Mr. Bentham, in 1791, to M. Garran, of Coulon, member of the legislative assembly and of a committee for the reform of the criminal laws; on his representation the assembly ordered the memoir to be printed, but other events prevented him from paying farther attention to it.

The Directory of the Department of Paris, in whom public spirit and knowledge were so eminently united, soon distinguished this project amidst the crowd of those which were presented for the reform of prisons and hospitals. It appeared to claim the superiority, both with regard to economy and to public safety, over those plans which had hitherto obtained the greatest approbation: it offered an entirely new security for the main

* Translated from Vol. 3 of Traités de Legislation.

They have since been published.

tenance and confinement of the prisoners, as well as the most effectual means of reforming them. Accordingly it was adopted unanimously, and measures were taken for carrying it into execution, when the department itself was involved in the overthrow of the monarchy and the constitution.

A certain fatality seems attached to this plan in England, where in general they are slow to decide, but steady and determined in execution. This same plan was approved by the ministry: a bill was brought into parliament to raise the sum necessary for the construction of the building: another bill was introduced for the purchase of the ground, and, in spite of both these bills, nothing has been done; different legal objections have been started, none of which has any particular reference to the plan itself: and the author of it remains just where he was the first day of the proposal, except, indeed, with the sacrifice of much time and expense in the unsuccessful pursuit of his object.

I have here preserved the memoir such as it was presented to the National Assembly, with some additions on the internal management of prisons. I have not gone into the details, relating either to the construction of the building or to the employment of the prisoners. The first of these objects belongs to the architect: the other more immediately concerns those who shall embark in the undertaking. I wish to omit nothing that may excite the attention of legislators to the plan, but if they are desirous to carry it into execution, the original work must be consulted.

"Would you know," said Mr. Bentham, in his letter, to Mr. Garran, "how far I am persuaded of the importance of this plan of reform, and of the great success likely to attend it? Let me construct a prison on this model and I am willing to become the gaoler of it; you will see, in the memoir itself, that this gaoler desires no salary and will cost nothing to the nation.

The more I consider the subject, the more I am convinced that this is one of the projects, the execution of which should be left in the hands of the inventor. If, on your side of the water, the same sentiments are entertained, perhaps there may be no great repugnance to the indulgence of my whim. Be this as it may, my work contains every necessary instruction: and, like the tutor of whom Fontenelle speaks, I have done my best to make myself useless."

From the testimony of different persons deserving of credit, we may believe that the prisons of Philadelphia have attained a degree of perfection which was deemed scarcely possible. But are we to conclude hence that these establishments are to be taken for models? Without doubt, not. To produce elsewhere the same results, it would be necessary first to transplant the instrument itself which effects them: namely, that religious society, that sort of Protestant Chartreux which puts into all its enterprises a zeal, a patience, an unwearied perseverance, an esprit de corps which makes amends for every privation. We must not forget that the gaolers of Europe are not Quakers; and that, far from carrying into this occupation the most exalted benevolence, the persons so employed are generally found destitute of the most common sentiments of humanity. Another circumstance shews in a striking point of view the necessity of having recourse to other means; I refer to the number of prisoners. Want properly so called is almost unknown in the United States of America; in many of them a beggar is an object of curiosity. Offences there are consequently very rare, and very little varied. little varied. But the domestic or paternal treatment which may answer with a small number of prisoners, would not be equally appropriate to establishments containing thousands of men, infected with all the different crimes to be met with in onr great capitals.

PANOPTICON.

An Establishment intended to keep Prisoners with greater safely and economy, and to effect at the same time the reformation of their morals, with different expedients to ensure their good behaviour, and to provide for their subsistence after their enlargement.

If it were possible to find out a method of making ourselves masters of all that can happen to a certain number of men, to dispose of all that surrounds them, so as to produce on them the very impression we wish to produce, and to determine their actions, their connexions, all the circumstances of their lives, according to a certain pre-conceived plan, there can be no doubt that such a power would be a most effectual and useful instrument in the hands of governments, and which they might apply to various objects of the highest importance.

Education, for example, is nothing but the result of all the circumstances to which a child is exposed. To superintend the education of a man is to superintend all his actions; it is to place him in a situation in which, by the choice of the objects presented and the ideas suggested, we can act upon him as we please.

But how shall a single person be able to watch over every action of a great number of individuals? How indeed can a

great number of individuals thoroughly superintend the conduct of any one individual? If we suppose a succession of persons employed to do this, and to relieve one another, there remains no longer any unity in their instructions nor connexion in their plans.

It will be easily granted then that it would be a proposal equally useful and new which should give to a single individual a power of superintendence that has hitherto baffled the united efforts of a great number.

This then is the problem which, by the continued application of a very simple principle, Mr. Bentham conceives he has solved. From so many establishments to which this principle might, with more or less advantage, be applied, houses of correction have appeared to him to deserve the most immediate attention. The reasons of such preference are importance, variety, and difficulty. In order to make a regular application of the same principle to all other establishments, it will be necessary only to omit some of the considerations insisted on in regard to these.

To introduce a complete reform into prisons, to ensure the actual good conduct and amendment of the prisoners, to secure the health, the cleanliness, the regularity and industry of these abodes, hitherto infected with every kind of impurity moral and physical, to increase the public security and at the same time to diminish instead of enlarging the expense, and all this by a simple plan of architecture, such is the object of his work.

The extract which we are about to submit to your judgment is taken from the original English, which has not been yet published, and will be sufficient to convey an idea of the nature and efficacy of the means which the author proposes to employ.*

*It has since been published.