Panopticon
Videos
Page
The panopticon is a design of institutional building with an inbuilt system of control, originated by the English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century. The concept is to allow all prisoners of an institution to be observed by a single corrections officer, without the inmates knowing whether or not they are being watched.
This plan of Jeremy Bentham's panopticon prison was drawn by Willey Reveley in 1791.
The plan of Millbank Prison has six pentagons with a tower at the centre arranged around a chapel.
Annotated floor plan of Eastern State Penitentiary in 1836
An 1880s architectural drawing by John Frederick Adolphus McNair depicts a proposed prison at Outram, Singapore, that was never built.
Jeremy Bentham
Videos
Page
Jeremy Bentham was an English philosopher, jurist, and social reformer regarded as the founder of modern utilitarianism.
Jeremy Bentham
Portrait of Bentham by the studio of Thomas Frye, 1760–1762
Elevation, section and plan of Bentham's panopticon prison, drawn by Willey Reveley in 1791
Bentham's public dissection