Prison officials blamed excessive comfort for rising recidivism

Evidence

The director of the maison centrale of Embrun remarked: ‘The excessive comfort in the prisons probably contributes a great deal to the terrible increase in the number of recidivists.’ While the director at Eysses remarked: ‘The present régime is not severe enough, and if one thing is certain it is that for many of the inmates prison has its attractions and that they find in prison depraved pleasures that are entirely to their liking.’ The director at Limoges: ‘The present régime of the maisons centrales which, for the recidivists, are in fact little more than boarding houses, is in no way repressive’ — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 557

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Rehabilitation has been displaced by incapacitation as prison’s goal; The prison sorts prisoners by hidden dangerousness revealed in conduct — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 202; Physical punishment reduces the caregiver’s availability as a source of comfort — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 9996

Broader Connections

• Rehabilitation has been displaced by incapacitation as prison’s goal #expands (0.85)
• Physical punishment reduces the caregiver’s availability as a source of comfort #contradicts (0.80) — , The Rod and the Child, 9996
• The prison sorts prisoners by hidden dangerousness revealed in conduct #qualifies (0.75) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 202