La maladie, le vice, la rébellion. Trois figures de la contagion carcérale
Prison can be defined as a system of containment against risks of contagion. Prisons put up physical as well as symbolical barriers between the convicts and the outside world. Moreover, they are designed to prevent human contacts by isolating every inmate from each other, especially in the Philadelp...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | fra |
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ENS Éditions
2011-11-01
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| Series: | Tracés |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/traces/5148 |
| Summary: | Prison can be defined as a system of containment against risks of contagion. Prisons put up physical as well as symbolical barriers between the convicts and the outside world. Moreover, they are designed to prevent human contacts by isolating every inmate from each other, especially in the Philadelphian model of solitary confinement. Its architectural layout as well as its principles of operation are conceived to ward off any unhealthy propagation, whether tangible or not. However, this prophylactic calling comes up against an insoluble contradiction. Prisons gather together the « evils » that they are supposed to combat, and in so doing, concentrate them. Hence, the prison system is criticized for being a pathogenic place and even a school for crime. With numerous grounds for fear (from homosexuality to reoffending, from epidemic to irreligiousness), the figure of « contagion » is common using historical as well as contemporary examples, this article draws the outline of a typology depicting three typical figures of contagion – physical, moral and political – against which prisons are supposed to work as a cordon sanitaire : disease, vice and rebellion. |
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| ISSN: | 1763-0061 1963-1812 |