Panopticism: Presidio Modelo

The design consists of a circular structure with an “inspection house” at its centre, from which the manager or staff of the institution are able to watch the inmates, who are stationed around the perimeter. Bentham conceived the basic plan as being equally applicable to hospitals, schools, sanatoriums, and asylums, but he devoted most of his efforts to developing a design for a Panopticon prison. It is his prison that is now most widely meant by the term “panopticon”. Bentham himself described the Panopticon as “a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example.” Elsewhere, in a letter, he described the Panopticon prison as “a mill for grinding rogues honest”. Michel Foucault. Discipline and Punish, 1975 The prison was built under the President-turned-dictator Gerardo Machado between 1926 and 1928. The five circular blocks, with cells constructed in tiers around central observation posts, were built with the capacity to house up to 2,500 prisoners in humane conditions. La prisión fue construida durante la dictadura de Gerardo machado, entre 1926 y 1928. Los cinco bloques circulares, con las celdas construidas en graderíos alrededor del punto central de observación, tenían una capacidad de alojar hasta 2500 prisioneros en condiciones mínimamente dignas. The prison now serves as a museum and is declared a national monument, and the old administration building now serves as a school and research center.