This book highlights 'mundane' practices that increasingly influence our schools, homes and communities; cameras, Opagers', electronic monitoring instruments, the digital Opaper trailO of OcashlessO transactions, random drug testing, and Ointegrity testsO. The author journeys back and forth between the justice system and the everyday life of the postmodern to illustrate how the lines between these two spheres of social life are increasingly blurred by the use of new surveillance technologies. Taken together, these surveillance rituals constitute the building blocks of a rapidly emerging society of discipline, one increasingly stripped of personal privacy, individual trust, and a viable public life that supports and maintains democratic values and practices.

Author Biography

Bill Staples is Professor of Sociology at the University of Kansas.