Reforming Asylums and prisons

In 1831, a French writer by the name of Alexis de Tocqueville decided that he was going to visit the US to study their prisons. As he was observing prisoners who had been physically punished or isolated, de Tocqueville came to the conclusion that, "While society in the United States gives the example of the most extended liberty, the prisons of the same country offer the spectacle of the most complete despotism [rigid and severe control]." Reformers quickly took up the cause.