Rotary Jails, Panopticons, and Observation

When reading selections from Discipline and Punish by Foucault, the central idea of the Panopticon came into play. The panopticon is the ultimate in prison security, operating on the sole idea of constant idea of observation. The prisoners sit in lit up cells with the guards in the middle; the guard being able to see any one prisoner's movements at all times. The idea is that the prisoners would never know if they were being observed, but they would know that there is always the possibility that they were, leaving them in a stasis. Unable to move due to the repercussions of misbehaving, they would simply stay in line. 

Although it would have been more beneficial to observe an actual panopticon to understand its mechanics, the accessibility of panopticon-based prisons is scarce and hard to come by. In an attempt to understand confinement and prisons as described by Foucault, our class took a trip to the local Rotary Jail museum in Crawfordsville. Before my exposure to the city, I had no idea what a rotary jail was, and, for those of you who don't, the wikipedia page about them is concise and very helpful, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_jail). All the rage in detention in the 19th century, Rotary jails serve the purpose of being theoretically inescapable. In the jail, only one cell has access to the door, the rest are behind immobile bars. The idea is simple, the less the access point, fewer the opportunities of exploiting a door and escaping. 

The basic idea of the Rotary jail is in complete opposition to the panopticon. In the rotary jail, the prisoners are being watched less than if they were in a standard cell block, with guards having minimal and slowed access to each individual cell, with observation only happening one at a time. It's interesting that, even though the rotary jail is in opposition to the panopticon, it seems to fall into line with the idea of guilt and isolation detailed in Madness and Civilization. Each prisoner is isolated and thrown into a complete lack of control that's unseen in other prisons; they aren't stationary, but confined. They depend on the daily movement of the gear s to get in and out of the prison, with no control of saving themselves in the event of a fire, or something of that nature. The observation wouldn't be what keeps them in line, it's knowing that they are completely without control.

I wonder which technique is more effective. Rotary jails are now completely unused, and the Rotary Jail Museum in Crawfordsville is the only one accessible, legally, to the public, and panopitcons only exist now as jails that were inspired by panopticons. Both work off of Foucault's ideas, but they are in complete contrast to one another in terms of execution. If prisoners hadn't lost limbs in the Rotary Jails, and if the panopticons weren't so adventurous, perhaps they would still see usage today.