In the Middle Ages there were gaols & dungeons but punishment was for the most part a spectacle. The economic changes & growing popular dissent of the 18th century made necessary a more systematic control over the individual members of society & this in effect meant a change from punishment which chastised the body to reform which touched the soul. Foucault shows the development of the Western system of prisons police organizations administrative & legal hierarchies for social control
- & the growth of disciplinary society as a whole. He also reveals that between school factories barracks & hospitals all share a common organization in which it is possible to control the use of an individuals time & space hour by hour.