Selective modernization and the spatial circuits of urban economy: cities and prisons in the current technological period

In the current technical-scientific-informational period, the relations between the territory of the cities and prisons are quite complex. They are constituted from different spatial circuits, beyond the contiguous boundaries of the immediate surroundings of prisons. As control and punishment tools, currently, prisons are central objects in various uses, practices and configuration of the territory of the cities. The articulation of prisons with adjacent or remote cities creates geographical connections, which are now possible due to the characteristics of the current transport and communication systems. However, the implementation of these networks and spatial circuits occurs partially because of selective and incomplete modernizations. By promoting this selective modernization in the urban territory, prisons also participate in the broadened reproduction of capital in the contemporary period.