La funzione politica della prigione. Su capitalismo, gestione degli illegalismi e potere in Sorvegliare e punire

This article discusses Michel Foucault’s thesis on the political function of the prison and the political character of delinquency. By analyzing the relationship between the emergence of the prison and conflicts related to the capitalist mode of production, between the management of illegalities and the production of subaltern subjectivities, I aim to show, first of all, how Foucault continues his dialogue with Marxism in Discipline and Punish, extending Marxian historical-political analyses and Marxist historiography on popular illegalities. Secondly, I intend to show how the institution of the prison marks a qualitative leap in the history of the production of subalternity by power, and how its critique is functional to the reaggregation of plebeian struggles.