Prison Reform - Alex E

One day in 1841 a woman named Dorothea Dix agreed to teach Sunday school at a local prison. What she saw that day changed her life forever.

Dix saw that the prisoners were treated horribly. They were bound in chains and locked in cages. Children that committed only minor thefts were locked up with adults! She was outraged when she saw this and wondered if prisoners everywhere were treated like this. She also visited many debtors and they most were locked up for less than twenty dollars!
What shocked Dorothea most was the way that they treated the mentally ill. They were locked up in dirty over crowded prisons and were whipped if they misbehaved.
All of this lead to Dix wanting change. She gathered information for years and prepared a report for the Massachusetts state Legislature. They were shocked by Dix’s report and decided to make public asylums for the mentally ill. Inspired by her success she decided to go to other states and help the mentally ill there too.