The Body in a Disciplinary Space The Prison (J.Larere, 2013)

THE BODY IN A DISCIPLINARY SPACE : THE PRISON

Through the example of Fremont County, the biggest prison complex in the world (US), to what extent can architecture become an instrument of torture and the human body become commoditized when the penal system is privatized?

By Joséphine Larere (2013)

Under the direction of Brent Patterson, University teacher of architecture’s theory and criticism © Copyright all rights reserved

Introduction

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p In 1871 Canon City in Fremont County, Colorado, was a little

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town with four blocks and a prison, the first "territorial

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penitentiary". It was built at one end of the Main Street, and considered as the pride of the city. Today this prison still

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exists and is called the "Old maximum security prison". But

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it is not the only prison in the area: Fremont County is today

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the biggest prison complex in the world, containing thirteen

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prisons between Canon City and Florence.

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Through the example of Fremont County, to what extent

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can architecture become an instrument of torture and the

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human body become commoditized when the penal system

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is privatized?

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The Supermax Prison of Colorado: a violent instrument of punishment

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Supermax' official name is "United States Penitentiary

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Administrative Maximum Facility, Florence" or "ADX Florence".

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It was opened in 1994, sprawling by the foothills of the Rockies.

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It is a Federal prison conceived for the most dangerous

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prisoners of the world. ADX Florence is part of the Florence

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federal correctional Complex that incarcerates five thousands

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inmates. The main goals of a Supermax prison are to hold the

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inmates in isolation from the others and under the highest

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system of control. This aims the breaking down of prison

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gangs, and violence between the inmates. For the inmate Luc

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Levasseur, Supermax is «a prototechno-fascist’s architectural

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wet dream.»1 The particularity of this typology of prison is the

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several layers of security in the prison: different layers of

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isolation. The first layer is the site, in the middle of the desert,

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between Canon City and Florence, ADX Florence cannot be

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perceived from the public roads, it is completely hidden. The 1.

ADX Florence has a triangle shape. It doesn’t look like a high

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«prison fortress». Half of the prison is underground; the rest

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is organized on two levels. Only the control towers are higher

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than the rest. This organization engenders a better visual

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quality for guards in the tower blocks: no obstacles in height provide a deeper vision, and the flat architecture engenders

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less shadow areas, and thus minimizes the external «blind

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spots». Low-high construction is relative in this case to the

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security tower. In fact when we focus on the prison, we realize

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that concrete walls that delimitate «outside areas» are about

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two-stories high, and so higher than human scale. This means

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that when a prisoner is in one of those areas, the only vision of

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the exterior that he has is the sky: there is no horizon visible,

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no landmarks, and no possible sense of orientation possible.

Inside the prison, the spatial organization is directly connected

1.Plan of Supermax prison (from Prison Valley documentary)

with the different layers of control. The prison is composed of

2. Supermax prison (from Prison Valley documentary)

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different wings, a group of cellblocks. Each cellblock has six pods or housing units. A pod is composed of eight cells. They are put in ten by six feet cells, in which they are kept alone 22,5 hours a day.

Most of the cells have a four-inch size window that opens on a high concrete wall. The doors are doubled to «obstruct their view to the outside, but at the same time allow no privacy in the cells».2 The cell is organized so the prisoner feels isolated but with no privacy. «Lack of privacy fosters considerable stress and aggression.»3 The housing unit is composed by the eight cells arranged around a communal area where we find a single shower and a solitary recreation area, a sort of

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empty pool: a 26x10 feet courtyard with 20 feet walls, without furniture but a camera on the top.» Everything is done inside.

Even in the recreation area, that is supposed to be outside, is made like an interior area with no roof.»4 Each unit has its own control gate that has direct visible access to the cells from a single guard. «Its design has similarities to Bentham’s Panopticon scheme. It is not 360 degrees but 180 so there is always a good visibility of all the pods. The pods are separated from the control area by electronically controlled metal gates. The guard of the cell block’s control room controls the operation of doors and gates, pod and cells’ lighting…system that not allows that two cells open at the same time.»5 Architecture has in Supermax hard consequences on prisoners. In Supermax, prisoners become sensory deprivated. «Prisoners are confined to a concrete world in which they never see a blade of grass, earth, trees or any part of the natural world.»6 No sound, everything is concrete and few natural lights. The doors are covered by a hard Plexiglas that makes the cell soundproof. «Inside, no

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one can hear you scream».7 There is no comfort, no color, no texture, and no senses. «These are places to silence us. To keep you controlled. I consider the Supermax as a psychological torture chamber (Shain Duka, convicted of a terrorist plot to attack a US army base).»8 In prison, space exercises the power «dictating movement across time and space, and shaping human experiences».9 Here in ADX Florence, space is completed with a high technological system of surveillance. In fact, the security is based on the fact that technology can partially and sometimes entirely replace prison guards. In Supermax prison, staff number is very low compared to the other prisons of Fremont County. Technology also provides a total separation between staff and prisoners thanks to remote commands. This means that the prison is less human oriented, the prisoners have absolutely no exchange with the others and the guards. They are isolated by the © Copyright all rights reserved

3. Plan of a cellblock (from Sharon Shalev’s book) 4. Axonometry of a cell (from Prison Valley documentary)

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architecture and by the multiplicity of technology surveillance.

They have no human contact. There is no congregating area, no group activities, the recreation area, «the empty swimming pool» is for one single inmate, they eat in their own cell, there

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is only one shower per housing unit, and when communication

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with their family is authorized, it is made by video visitation.

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The prisoners are totally excluded from society but also inside

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the prison. The solitary confinement makes the prisoners

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disoriented and «dehumanized». They are excluded of any

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social context and under permanent controlled and stressful

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virtual authority that make them more violent. Dr. Craig Haney,

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expert on the psychological effects of living and working in

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maximum security prisons «Check out any caged animal and

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you will see what happens in Supermax prisons. I’ve seen

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people just crack and either scream for hours on end or cry,

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people become very depressed, anti-social and want revenge

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on society for building it.»

«The architectural principles

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of isolation, surveillance and control in contemporary

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Supermax prisons remain surprisingly similar to those of the

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«separate» and «silent» penitentiaries of the early nineteenth

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century.» In fact, the characteristics of Supermax geometry

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completed by its technology system can be compared to

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Bentham’s Panopticon. From its tower control or control unit,

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the guard can see everything that the prisoners do, but the

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prisoners never see the guard. «The Panopticon acts directly

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on individuals without any physical instrument other than

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architecture and geometry. (…) The Panopticon schema makes

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any apparatus of power more intense; it assures its efficacy

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by its preventative character, its continuous functioning and

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its automatic mechanisms». Supermax prisons’ similarities

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with the Panopticon are not based only on the geometry but

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on its consequences. Architecture is in this case completed

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by technology, and this combination makes «the automatic

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mechanisms of power» functioning independently: even if the

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prisoners almost never have visual contact with the guards,

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they are under surveillance 24 hours a day. «Foucault defines

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the abstract formula of the Panopticon not as «to see without

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being seen», but as a way to impose a certain behavior to

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a certain human multiplicity.»

Supermax is a pertinent

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example of architecture as an instrument of psychological and

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physical torture. «Supermax do not offer any «alternative to

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violence». On the contrary, they are themselves highly violent

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places.» It seems that the aim of Supermax is to target the 14

body of a prisoner, not as a human being but as a “subject” that

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has no need, no sensation, unable to move and appropriate its

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own space.

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Analysis of Canon City, economically growing due to the prison industry When the first prison opened, Colorado was still a territory and Canon City didn’t exist formally. Since then the town grew up around this prison situated today at the end of the Main Street. Historically it has been known as the prison capital of the world. «The name of this area is prison valley, that’s how we call it here. There is nothing else to offer».15 30% of Fremont County works in a prison or has a member of its family working in a prison. There is in total 36000 inhabitants in the County and 16% of the population is in Prison. In 2006 there was 7150 prisoners. In Florence there is almost one prisoner for every free citizen. In total Fremont County counts thirteen prisons, four Federal prisons and nine states prisons.

It is a «clean version of hell».16 The valley between Canon City and Florence is surrounded by a mountain area, making the place isolated by its geography and topography. The site is itself one of the layers of security of the prisons. If a prisoner manages to escape, the natural site forces him to follow the main road and be caught up quickly.

Similarities can be seen between the city and its prisons, «far away, out of sight, out of mine, and removed from society».17

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The city expanded around and between the different prisons making the city an isolated place. It is planned as a place of enclosure that separates two worlds: the prisoner’s families or prison workers and the prisoners. Only walls and control towers separate them. This proximity and isolation engenders a feeling of fear in the county. Fear of prisoners that escape, of gangs and contrabands that illegally settle and hide in the area, and perturbing the security with graffiti all around the town.

«In this town even those outside feel inside prison».18 The city presents itself different layers of control. Announcement of the different control towers of the prisons can be heard from certain neighborhoods of the city and the inhabitants know that they can be watched by the prison guards of the control units. There is an indirect surveillance system that makes the citizens act like they are inside a prison. Prisoners’ families that settled in the city are even more controlled to avoid transfer of communication between contrabands and the prisoners. The city grew with the development of neighborhoods where most

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of the prisoners’ families live.

In Canon City most of the houses look like mobile homes or cheap houses that look like temporary dwellings. It creates a new perception of time and stability. Most of the people

6. Valley between Canon City and Florence (From Prison

living there didn’t decide it for their own interest but because

Valley documentary)

they are waiting for some prisoner to get out of prison. This

7. Valley between Canon City and Florence (From Prison

means that they temporally live there. This notion has a

Valley documentary)

direct relation with the architecture, the absence of comfort © Copyright all rights reserved

and public spaces. In fact outdoor public spaces are mostly

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the streets, which are under surveillance and surrounded by

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prisons, abandoned prisons, federal bureau of prison and also

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cultural activities such as the prison museum. Fremont County

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is an extreme place of enclosure where the notion of freedom

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doesn’t exist. We can describe it as a society of control, «The

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individual never ceases to pass from one closed environment

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to another.» For Foucault, «in the western world, the concept

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of freedom cannot be understood outside a policed capitalist

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system». There are prisoners, their families are constantly

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under control, and people working in the prisons who are

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subject to the law of silence: nobody is allowed to talk of what

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happens inside the prisons, risking in this case to loose their

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job. «We like control, we like force, the biggest threat here is

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to take away people’s freedom.» In Fremont County, due to

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the extension and multiplication of prisons, the cities become

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similar to prison and contaminated by the absence of freedom.

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What are the consequences of a prison town that is related to a capitalist system?

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s In the XIX century, Fremont County had the choice between

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becoming the university capital of Colorado or the biggest

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prison town. In 1990 prisons of the United States became

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overpopulated, and though began a transfer of prisoners from

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state to state, introducing the beginning of the private prisons:

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taking prisoners from other states in exchange for money

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or benefits. In Colorado, 25% of the prisoners are in private

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prisons. «It is an extension of the capitalist dream, they make money the more a prisoner stays. It is a political process that

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exploit everything.»

Moreover an economic growth can be

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seen also by the benefits due to the prisoners. In fact in many

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prisons of the area, prisoners are working during the day. In

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Colorado State Penitentiary II the cells are prefabricated by

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the state prisoners: public prisons work for the construction

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of private prisons. In the Fremont Correctional Facility, the

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biggest central of Colorado with 1661 inmates has 507

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working prisoners who earn 80 dollars a month. Most of

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them build furniture that is sold on the Internet or to public

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facilities of the County such as schools. The area is almost

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«selfsufficient». They bring the minimum of workers to build

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the prisons, making the prisoners work. «Today most of the

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products that we buy are exported. We started to exploit our

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prisoners to compensate the failure of our factories» , said 23

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Buffie McFadyen Democratic Senator of Colorado. So making

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the prisoners work is in this case seen as taking benefits from

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them, inducing a growth of the economy, but it is especially

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claimed as a social opportunity: the prisoners are not totally

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excluded from society and can find work more easily when getting out of prison. Foucault explains that at the beginning of © Copyright all rights reserved

8. Gas chamber (From Prison Valley documentary) 9.Prisoner’s physical torture (From Prison Valley documentary)

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the XIX century, the big spectacle of the physical punishment

businesses: prisoners’ uniform and guard’s uniform factories,

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disappears letting the place to the «age of the sober punition.»

security equipment’s’ shop, museum, souvenir shops, motels

For decades in Canon City, a gas chamber was installed on the

for prisoner’s family visiting or workers… «It is certainly

top of a hill: it was a «one-piece box with large windows for the

possible to make a punitive regime correspond to a system

spectators. Until 1934, hanging was the only formal penalty

of production: disciplinary mechanism cannot be separated

in the county. Then from 1934 to 1967, Canon City became

from the demographical growth of the XVIII’s century, and the

the laboratory for gas chamber execution.»

growth of a production that perpetually tries to increase its

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Today Gas

chamber execution is forbidden, but they are still very proud

efficiency.»30

of it and opened then the museum of prisons in Canon City.

«In a measure of prison pride, museums have sprouted up.

This aspect that Foucault explains is a reality today in Fremont

Every year, about 15,000 tourists troop through Canon City’s

County: the four Federal prisons that opened since 1994 just

museum, located below the looming gray walls of Colorado’s

south of Florence «have brought a flood of jobs and new

oldest prison, the Territorial Correctional Facility, built in

residents. Here in Florence, an upscale housing development

1871. Just inside the gate, visitors encounter a deactivated,

centered on a golf course is being built.»31

limegreen gas chamber.»26 Prison and punishment becomes an attraction, a spectacle that attracts tourists and participates

Conclusion

to the economic benefits of the city.

The industry of prison as though made possible the development Fremont County is a unique place in the world: a result of

of cities such as Canon City and Florence in Fremont County. In

the hardening of punishment penalties in the United States

twenty years, four private prisons have been built, making the

since more than two decades: an industry. «If the prison

County growing economically. There, punishment is a pride

hadn’t existed here, there would have been nothing and no

and an attraction. It generates wealth, jobs and development.

one because people have nothing else to offer. The prison

It is a place where architecture becomes punitive and where

industry, where the bodies are similar to merchandise, where

prisoners become bodies without soul or senses. The human

everything is about stocks, turn over, little business, miserable

body has no more power against it and becomes the slave of

salaries for miserable penitentiary work, contrabands and

architecture and urban planning. Prisoners also merge with

anti contrabands (…) and where housing price increased a lot

merchandise and make important benefits to the County and

around prisons’ complex.»

its development. Fremont County is a vicious circle that “over-

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values” the notion of punishment to develop an industry and In Fremont City, the prisoners are not seen as human, but as a

increase the incomes. But could a prison town be developed

way to get money and benefits. «Foucault attempts to propose

outside a capitalist system?

a reading of the body, now as a biological organism, but rather as a target for a political subjection as much as an anatomical

The disposition of an architectural space can dictate how

mean of production; the body is also directly involved in a

the human body behaves and has therefore different

political field; power relations have an immediate hold upon it;

consequences on it. But is it today the typology of prison that

they invest it, mark it, train it, torture it, force it to carry tasks,

must be followed? The aim of the architect is to requestion the

to perform ceremonies, to emit signs.»

position of architecture in relation of a penal system.

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«This political investment of the body is bound up, in accordance with complex reciprocal relations, with its economic use; it is largely like a force of production that the body is invested with relations of power and domination; but, on the other hand, its constitution as labor power is possible only if it is caught up in a system of subjection (in which need is also a political instrument meticulously prepared, calculated, and used); the body becomes a useful force only if it is both productive body and a subjected body.»29 In 1984 unemployment was 11 percent, today unemployment is four percent. There, prison is a tool for development, sometimes almost provocative: the color of the County is orange, remaining the color of prison.

The industry concerns any type of private and public © Copyright all rights reserved

FOOTNOTES

28. Michel Foucault, in Léopold Lambert, “Foucault /// Episode

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5: The Political Technology of the Body”, The Funambulist, June

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1. Sharon Shalev, Supermax: Controlling Risk Through Solitary

2012 http://thefunambulist.net/2012/06/27/foucaultepisode-

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Confinement (LSE 2009) p.5

5-the-political-technology-of-the-body/

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2. Ibid., p.123.

29. Ibid.

3. Ibid., p.188.

30. My translation from Gilles Deleuze, «un nouveau

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4. Ibid., p.122.

cartographe», in Foucault (Les éditions de minuit, 1986) p.34

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5. Ibid.

31. James Brooke, «Prisons: A Growth Industry for Some;

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6. «What is a Supermax prison?», march 2002, http://www.

Colorado County Is a Grateful Host to 7,000 Involuntary

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spunk.org/texts/prison/sp001611.txt

Guests», New York Times, November 1997

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7. Ibid

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/02/us/prisonsgrowth-

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8. Ed Pilkington, « ADX Florence supermax prison: the Alcatraz

industry-for-some-colorado-countygrateful-host-7000-

of the Rockies », The Guardian, April 2012 ://www.guardian.

involuntary.html

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co.uk/world/2012/apr/

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9. Sharon Shalev, op.cit., p.103

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10. «What is a Supermax prison?», march 2002, http://www.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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spunk.org/texts/prison/sp001611.txt Book

11. Sharon Shalev, op.cit.

1975) My translation from Gilles Deleuze, «un nouveau

cartographe», in Foucault (Les éditions de minuit, 1986) p.41

i

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12. Michel Foucault, Surveiller et punir (éditions Gallimard 13.

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Michel Foucault, Surveiller et punir (éditions Gallimard 1975)

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To understand the origins of the prison as a place of discipline,

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punishment, surveillance, torture, «mechanism of power».

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14. Sharon Shalev, op.cit. p.55 15. David Dufresne and Philippe Brault, Prison Valley (Arte TV

Gilles Deleuze, «un nouveau cartographe», in Foucault (Les

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2006)

éditions de minuit, 1986)

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16. Ibid.

Chapter «un nouveau cartographe», where G.Deleuze go

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17. Ibid.

further on Foucault’s thinking about disciplinary places.

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19. “Society of control” by Gilles Deleuze in Léopold

Jeremy Bentham, Panoptique: mémoire sur un nouveau

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Lambert, “DELEUZE///Foucault and the Society of Control”,

principe pour construire des maison d’inspection, (1791)

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Panopticon concept for the thematic of surveillance. Make a

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net/2011/10/12/deleuzefoucault- and-the-society-of-control/

relation between panopticon and technologies today, with the

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20. Ibid.

video surveillance system.

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18. Ibid.

The

Funambulist,

October

2012,

http://thefunambulist.

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21. David Dufresne and Philippe Brault, « Interview of Christie Donner » in Prison Valley, (Arte TV 2006)

Sharon Shalev, Supermax: Controlling Risk Through Solitary

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22. David Dufresne and Philippe Brault, Prison Valley (Arte TV

Confinement (LSE 2009)

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2006)

Analyses the proliferation of supermax prisons in the United

23. Ibid.

States, and their specificity.

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24. Michel Foucault, Surveiller et punir (éditions Gallimard 1975)

David Dufresne and Philippe Brault, Prison Valley (Arte TV

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25. David Dufresne and Philippe Brault, Prison Valley (Arte TV

2006)

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2006)

Information about canon city, statistics, interviews of

26. James Brooke, «Prisons: A Growth Industry for Some;

inhabitants of Canon City, guards, and inmates’ family.

“

Colorado County Is a Grateful Host to 7,000 Involuntary Guests», New York Times, November 1997

Website

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n

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/02/us/prisonsgrowthindustry-for-some-colorado-countygrateful-host-7000-

«What is a Supermax prison?», march 2002,

involuntary.html

http://www.spunk.org/texts/prison/sp001611.txt

27. David Dufresne and Philippe Brault, Prison Valley (Arte TV

Interview of several inmates and guards living in the Supermax

2006)

prison of Colorado.

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Article in a Newspaper Gilles Deleuze, «Postcript on the societies of control,» L’autre Journal n°1 (1992) Canon city as a society of control, micro totalitarian society.

Ray luc Levasseur, «Trouble Coming Every Day: ADX–The First Year», North Coast Express, June 1996, http://solitarywatch.com/solitary-voices/trouble-comingeveryday-adx-the-first-year/ Testimony of Ray luc Levasseur, incarcerated in a Supermax prison.

James Brooke, «Prisons: A Growth Industry for Some; Colorado County Is a Grateful Host to 7,000 Involuntary Guests», New York Times, November 1997 http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/02/us/prisons-growthindustryfor-some-colorado-county-grateful-host-7000involuntary.html Statistics of the Growth of the prison industry in Fremont County in 1997, to be compared to statistics from the Prison Valley documentary from 2006.

Ed Pilkington, « ADX Florence supermax prison: the Alcatraz of the Rockies », The Guardian, April 2012 ://www.guardian. co.uk/world/2012/apr/10/abu-hamza-isolationsupermaxprison Testimony of Shain Duka, incarcerated in a Supermax prison.

Article in an online journal Léopold Lambert, «FOUCAULT /// Episode 1: Michel Foucault’s Architectural Underestimation», The Funambulist, June

2012,

http://thefunambulist.net/2012/06/20/

foucaultepisode-1-michel-foucaults-architecturalunderestimation/ Interview of Michel Foucault by Paul Rabinow «Space, power and knowledge».

Michel Foucault, in Léopold Lambert, “Foucault /// Episode 5: The Political Technology of the Body”, The Funambulist, June

2012

http://thefunambulist.net/2012/06/27/

foucaultepisode-5-the-political-technology-of-the-body/

f “Society of control” by Gilles Deleuze in Léopold Lambert, “DELEUZE///Foucault and the Society of Control”, The Funambulist,

October

2012,

http://thefunambulist.

net/2011/10/12/deleuze-foucault-and-thesociety- of-control/

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