In Michel Foucault’s essay, “Panopticism” from Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison, Foucault examines the structure of the Panopticon, and from its effects, derives the concept of Panopticism, where the external gaze induces “in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power” (Foucault, pg. 6). The concept derives from the Panopticon – an architectural structure, designed to control inmates through surveillance. It was designed by Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century, and the structure itself is a rotunda consisting of prison cells on all floors, with a surveillance tower in the middle of the structure, making it possible to watch any inmate at any time. In other words, Panopticism is the general idea that power is automatically sustained, as the prisoner becomes so aware of being perpetually watched, they become their own guards (ref). Thus, the historical relationship between punishment and Panopticism is made clear by not only the modern adaption of the panopticon into institutions like prisons, schools, hospitals, and so on, but it is made evident in Franz Kafka’s “In the Penal Colony”, which serves as a symbolic historical meditation on the relation between punishment and panopticism.
Punishment, which refers to “the imposition of a penalty or consequence for a perceived wrongdoing or violation of a rule, law, or moral standard”, is used to enforce rules, laws, moral standards, and social norms. While the effectiveness of punishment as a means of corrective behavior is debated, punishment is a key tool used in the form of surveillance in a panoptic society, thereby intimately linking punishment with panopticism. This relationship is further illustrated in “In the Penal Colony.” In Kafka’s story, the machine's design and operation represent a fictionalized version of Bentham's Panopticon, in the sense that the machine functions as both punishment, and a reminder that prisoners are being watched. It is a tool – much like the Panopticon, to control the prisoners of the colony. Take for example the Condemned man in the story, who fell asleep on duty, and was caught by his master. While the validity of the prisoner’s captain’s story is up for question, the Condemned man’s sentence serves to instill fear among prisoners that they too may be watched and sentenced to the same fate. Furthermore, in the same way that a guard or any spectator may come watch prisoners through the tower in the center of the Panopticon, the execution machine, in its original function, was built to be a public affair – a spectacle. The Harrow is built of glass, so that through it, “everyone can see [the needles]” (pg. 6), and the execution, further strengthening control over the colony. As such, the machine’s function, much like the Panopticon, relies on the concept of punishment for control. While Panopticism relies on the concept of internalized surveillance, the machine’s form of punishment is violent, yet it too relies on the role of the observer.
Moreover, I would argue that civilized humans (the kind of autonomous, moral beings that modern civilization purports to encourage) are a product of technologies of punishment. Institutions of punishment play an indispensable role in constructing human identity. The evidence to support this argument can be found in empirical observation of modern adaption of the concept of Panopticism. One such example of a modern day adaptation of the concept of Panopticism is digital surveillance.
http://guweb2.gonzaga.edu/faculty/mcreynolds/phil463/informationalism/panopticism.html#:~:text=Panopticism,be%20external%20to%20the%20watched.