Mettray concentrated family, army, workshop, school, and judicial models onto one panoptic subject

Evidence

The small, highly hierarchized groups, into which the inmates were divided, followed simultaneously five models: that of the family (each group was a ‘family’ composed of ‘brothers’ and two ‘elder brothers’); that of the army (each family, commanded by a head, was divided into two sections, each of which had a second in command; each inmate had a number and was taught basic military exercises; there was a cleanliness inspection every day, an inspection of clothing every week; a roll-call was taken three times a day); that of the workshop, with supervisors and foremen, who were responsible for the regularity of the work and for the apprenticeship of the younger inmates; that of the school (an hour or an hour and a half of lessons every day; the teaching was given by the instructor and by the deputy-heads); lastly, the judicial model (each day ‘justice’ was meted out in the parlour: ‘The least act of disobedience is punished and the best way of avoiding serious offences is to punish the most minor offences very severely: at Mettray, a useless word is punishable’; the principal punishment inflicted was confinement to one’s cell; for ‘isolation is the best means of acting on the moral nature of children; it is there above all that the voice of religion, even if it has never spoken to their hearts, recovers all its emotional power’ – Ducpétiaux, 1852, 377); the entire parapenal institution, which is created in order not to be a prison, culminates in the cell, on the walls of which are written in black letters: ‘God sees you.’ — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 449

Categorization

• XREF: The cell wall inscription ‘God sees you’ is the telescreen’s motto — endless unseen surveillance awaiting the internalized watcher. Directly connects to Orwell’s telescreens and the reader’s stated thesis. — connects to: Leper exclusion and plague discipline represent two distinct models of power — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 309; Family structure is internalized into the superego and projected into political behavior — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 574; Social formation elements articulate with each other in complex ways (+1 more)
• SHARE: The five-model structure of Mettray families (brothers, elder brothers, roll-calls three times daily, ‘a useless word is punishable’) is exactly the sort of period detail a prison-history friend would delight in.

Broader Connections

• Leper exclusion and plague discipline represent two distinct models of power #expands (0.82) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 309
• Family structure is internalized into the superego and projected into political behavior #expands (0.80) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 574
• Social formation elements articulate with each other in complex ways #expands (0.78)