[“Somewhere between Normalization and Differentiation, Prisoner’s Work in the Nineteenth-century”, in J-M Andrieu and R. Eckert (ed.), Prison Labor. A Historical Perspective on a Contemporary Problem] In the Nineteenth century, the... more
[“Somewhere between Normalization and Differentiation, Prisoner’s Work in the Nineteenth-century”, in J-M Andrieu and R. Eckert (ed.), Prison Labor. A Historical Perspective on a Contemporary Problem]
In the Nineteenth century, the French state must provide work for prisoners while allowing the interests of various industrial sectors and the claims made by the labour movement. In this chapter, we first analyze the centrality of work in the prison project at the beginning of the century, and how the presence of prison labour becomes a social and political issue: the competition between free labour and prison labour is debated and solutions are recommended by various reformers. Throughout the Nineteenth century make the prisoners work complies with a moral imperative, but an ambivalent one: between normalization and differentiation. The will to fight crime by normalizing power of labour was offset by maintaining a distinction between forced-prisoners workers and free workers.
