Asylum/ Prison reform

Prisons and jails across the United States in the 1830's were very dark and depressing, more so than they are today. A woman named Dorothea Dix visited a jail in Massachusetts. During her visit she learned that mentally ill people were placed there. She stood against this issue by trying to create rehabilitation centers and other types of treatment places. Also, a French man named Alexis de Tocquesville noticed that the United States preaches the idea of freedom, "...the prisons of the same country offer the spectacle of the most complete despotism."