Prison and mental health reform 1800s
PrisonThe idea behind the prison system itself required fixing. Prisons were overflowing with a vary population. Everyone from murders to debtors were placed in the same containment facility, and children, women, and men were all thrown into horrendous living conditions. After the War of 1812, reformers in Boston and New York adcocated the creation of Juvenile Detention Centers, instead of sending children directly to jail. Louis Dwight was also a leader in the reform of the prison system. After most of the 80 men imprisoned at Auburn Prison committed suicide or suffered mental breaks, he founded the Boston Prison Discipline Society, and spread the reformed Auburn System, the Pennsylvania System, nationwide. This society instituted a strong discipline system and allowed inmates to practice and attend religious ceremonies. After these reforms, European powers began to model prisons after the United States'. They shared the optimistic idea that prisons should have a positive effect on their inmates, and serve as more of a rehabilitation facility than a punishment.
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Mental illnessAs she toured the East Cambridge House of Corrections, Dorothea Dix saw horror after horror. The insane were bound, beaten, and lashed into obedience. There was nothing stopping the jailers of the insane from physically, mentally, and sexually abusing them. Vicious murders and the mentally handicapped were treated the same. Dix was infuriated, and along with Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, and a number of other influential men, she presented over one hundred seperate cases of abuse to the Massachusetts legislature. The state agreed to fund the State Mental Hospital at Worcester. It was an enormous victory for mental health care reform. Dix traveled the United States, and ultimately created 5 state funded mental institutions. She also traveled to Europe where she successfully pleaded for human rights to both the Pope and Queen Victoria. Although Dix advocated treatment of the mentally ill, most of the original mental institutions were simply used as warehouses.
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