"The Alternative to Prison" Author: [France] Michel Foucault Translator: Bai Yingting/Wu Yue Publisher: Shanghai Joint Publishing Company

Editor's Recommendations

★When the prison walls disappear, surveillance begins to spread to the entire society

★When power no longer relies on prisons, the power to define criminals also moves from prisons to the outside world

In a world of ubiquitous electronic surveillance, digital tracking, and algorithms, we need Foucault’s theories of punishment and power more than ever.

Introduction

In the second half of the 20th century, prisons and their rules underwent different innovations in Western society. Various new governance institutions and measures emerged, such as training institutions, treatment centers, and probation. Punitive measures moved from closed prisons to society, and they could even be reflected in punitive measures such as emphasizing fines and revoking driver's licenses.

In "The Alternative to Prisons", Foucault was worried that this transformation was not the abolition of prisons and punishment institutions, but the spread of surveillance and its power to the entire society. The new measures "will not only affect individuals imprisoned in cells or locked in prisons, but will also spread to individual lives that appear to be free on the surface."

This book includes the full text of Foucault's "Alternatives to Prisons", supplemented by summaries and responses to Foucault's views by contemporary French philosophers, electronic surveillance experts, criminologists and other professionals. Through topics such as electronic surveillance and economic crimes, it introduces Foucault's thoughts into our current digital life.