Penal reform shifted punishment from the act to the offender’s character

Evidence

But what was now beginning to emerge was a modulation that referred to the defendant himself, to his nature, to his way of life and his attitude of mind, to his past, to the ‘quality’ and not to the intention of his will. One perceives, but as a place as yet unfilled, the locus in which, in penal practice, psychological knowledge will take over the role of casuistic jurisprudence. Of course, at the end of the eighteenth century, that moment was still far off. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 160

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s central thesis — the shift from qualifying the act to qualifying the person is the same move that lets surveillance discipline be internal, targeting the soul-mind rather than the body. — connects to: Prison wages act as a fiction measuring moral transformation, not production — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 370; Penalties target the inmate’s transformation, not the exchange value of the crime — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 374; Minor offenders were judged more vicious than major criminals by prison directors — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 375 (+15 more)

Related

• Penal codes keep stable while the substance judged shifts from crime to offender (similarity 0.89)
• Penalties target the inmate’s transformation, not the exchange value of the crime (similarity 0.87)
• The respectful ‘humanity’ of the criminal became the target of correction (similarity 0.87)
• Modern penal practice replaced the act-question with the identity-question (similarity 0.87)
• Penal reform sought not less punishment but more universal, deeper social control (similarity 0.85)
• Penal reform arose from a policy shift, not new humanitarian feeling (similarity 0.85)
• Penal power shifted from judging acts to interrogating the criminal’s identity. (similarity 0.84)
• The reformed penalty shifted its target from the body to subtler suffering (similarity 0.83)
• Penal reform aimed to increase punishment’s effects while lowering its costs. (similarity 0.83)
• The rise of the prison institutionalized the power to punish (similarity 0.82)
• Late-nineteenth-century penal reforms shifted punishment from the offense to the offender (similarity 0.82)
• Penal reform succeeded by managing illegalities differentially, not eliminating them (similarity 0.82)
• Reformers reframed punishment as protection rather than vengeance (similarity 0.82)
• Penitentiary technique judges the criminal’s affinity with crime, not the act itself (similarity 0.82)
• Reform-era punishment was future-directed, aimed at prevention (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Punishment doubled into an object relation producing the criminal as a known individual #corroborates (0.82) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 163
• Penal power shifted its target from the body to the mind #expands (0.80) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 162
• Punishment shifted from sovereign vengeance to ensuring no crime goes unpunished #qualifies (0.75)
• Reformers shifted punishment’s aim from expiation to prevention #expands (0.75) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 204