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As an ideal penitentiary, this abandoned panopticon saw several revolts and even a prisoners' coup.
Santo Stefano is an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea that for nearly two centuries housed a prison built on the late-18th-century model of the ideal panopticon: the panopticon. The principle of the panopticon, ideated by the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, is a circular design in which the inmates can be observed by one watchman without knowing whether they’re being watched, so that they are motivated to behave properly at all times.
