Foucault dated the carceral system’s completion to Mettray’s 1840 opening

Evidence

Were I to fix the date of completion of the carceral system, I would choose not 1810 and the penal code, nor even 1844, when the law laying down the principle of cellular internment was passed… . [T]he date I would choose would be 22 January 1840, the date of the official opening of Mettray. In the arrangement of a power-knowledge over individuals, Mettray and its school marked a new era. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 756

Categorization

• XREF: This is the direct Foucauldian anchor the author is importing into colonial historiography — connects to Discipline and Punish’s closing sections.