Major Leaders of Asylum/Prison reform

Major leaders of Asylum/Prison reform and their accomplishments

One major leader of the Prison reform of the 19th century was Dorothea Dix. Dix was compelled by personal experience to join the movement for social reform. On visiting a Massachusetts house of correction, Dix was horrified to discover the that jails often housed mentally ill people. In 1843, she sent a report of her findings to the Massachusetts legislature, who in turn passed a law aimed at improving the conditions. Between 1845 and 1852 Dorothea Dix persuaded nine southern states to set up public hospitals for the mentally ill. She constantly tried to get a national bill to support the mentally ill passed, but President Franklin Pierce vetoed the bill because he felt that the states, not the federal government should be responsible for social welfare. Dix and other prison reformers like Enoch wines and Theodore Dwight emphasized the idea of rehabilitation, treatment that might reform the sick or imprisoned person to be useful in society. These revivalists suggested that there was hope for everybody.