Reading 12 March prison memories within the framework of Foucault's conceptualization of discipline and power

The aim of this study is to examine the period of March 12, which is a very controversial process with its inhumane practices, through the conceptual framework of power, prison, confinement, control and discipline, discussed by Michel Foucault through the memoirs of those who were imprisoned in this process. Power analysis has an important place in Foucault's studies on the subject. He emphasizes that power does not have a central position, it is everywhere in political and social life like a network. In Foucault's theory of power, power produces subjects through discourses. Individuating, producing norms, normalizing, constructing discourse are the techniques used by the power in the production of the subject. While Foucault emphasizes the decentralization of power, he argues that we can only dissolve it in the spaces where it is crystallized. These places are also the places where the norm is produced. Prisons, mental hospitals and clinics are places where power is crystallized and norms are produced. In this sense, punishment does not establish the supremacy of power. Prison is one of the places where docile, productive bodies are produced through techniques such as confinement, discipline, surveillance, individuation. The validity of Foucault's theoretical framework and the way it is experienced will be discussed within the framework of its reflection on the memoirs of the detainees and convicts of the 12 March period. In this sense, in addition to describing the prison conditions of a historical period, the memoir will serve as a source where the practical reflections of the theoretical framework can be discussed and will constitute an alternative to the historiography of March 12. Keywords: Foucault, Power, Memoirs, 12 March, Dicipline, Confinement