One day a woman named Dorothea Dix went to a prison to teach a Sunday school class. She couldn’t believe what she saw that day it even changed her life. She was horrified by how in the jails kids were in cells with adults and the mentally ill were treated terrible as if they were insane. Most Americans were jailed because they couldn’t pay off their debts and you think how are they going to pay it off if their in prison?
After a while Dorothea got enough information to write a letter to the Massachusetts State Legislature. She was amazed when the lawmakers voted to create public asylums for the mentally ill. They even created special mental hospitals.
The prison reform was a big success. According to Spartacus Educational, (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USACWdixD.htm) “By 1854 Dix had helped to establish mental hospitals in eleven states. She had also founded hospitals in Russia, Turkey, France and Scotland.”
She was inspired then and campaigned for reform for the rest of her life. State governments no longer put debtors in prison and special justice system made for children in trouble. Also there was no more cruel punishment in prisons.
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