Social and political influences on the exercise of authority in prison

This text belongs to a round table which offers a discussion with James B. Jacobs, author of the classic in sociology of prisons Stateville: The penitentiary in mass society, on the importance of his work 40 years later. This commentary stresses two important contributions of his work and relates them to changes in society and the configuration of punishment since then. First, this outstanding study of the relations between prison and society is used as a springboard from which to pose the question of whether this relationship has varied substantially with the existence of more channels of communication and the increase of people being imprisoned. Second, acknowledging his excellent use of Weber for understanding punishment, the issue of contradictory dynamics pushing for a more legal-rational and more charismatic exercises of authority is raised.