Many people were in these prisons because they were in debt. Other people were in the prisons because they were mentally ill. Some were in cages, cellars, stalls. Most were beaten, some were naked.
Dorothea Dix was a woman that went to these prisons to look how these people were treated. After she saw the conditions, she wanted to change the prison system.
By the time she died the states no longer put debtors in prisons. And good mental hospitals were built for the mentally insane.
I think this movement was very successful. According to The National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems (http://www.naphs.org/) there are “more than 600 specialty psychiatric hospitals, general hospital psychiatric and addiction treatment units and behavioral healthcare divisions, residential treatment facilities, youth services organizations, and extensive outpatient networks.”
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