prison reform

Essay by adduran15High School, 10th gradeB, August 2014

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Internet Research Paper

Adam Duran

Prison Reform in the 1800's

The main thing about the prison reform was about separation of people in the prisons. People were being arrested for the most obscure things, children, that would do minor misdemeanors would be put in prison with men and woman that would murder people. After the war in 1812, juvenile detention centers were built to try and correct the behavior of the children. This was better than throwing them in prison with grown men who were hard criminals. People who were mentally ill we're also put into prison as a criminal.

The prisons in Massachusetts condition's were horrible. The prisoners were treated awfully and if any prisoner would misbehave they would be put in solitary confinement. That is where a prisoner who did something bad in prison would have to spend their sentence in pure isolation away from everyone else. They weren't allowed to talk or do any type of communication with anyone else.

Another form of punishment added on to solitary confinement was labor. In 1821, the prisoners that were in solitary confinement were going crazy. Out of 80 prisoners more than half of them committed suicide or had mental breakdowns. This is what caused the prisons to have them work with hard labor rather than having them in a room by themselves all day. Labor the only time the inmate was allowed to talk to anyone else. The prisoners were harshly whipped, brutally beaten, and horribly chained.

This caught the eye of one school teacher named Dorothy Dix. If you were to look up anything about the prison reform in the 1800's, she would be the one you would find the most information about. Dorothea Dix was born in April 4, 1802. She was born in Hampden, Maine and...