ipl-logo

Dorothea Dix: The Role Of Prison Reform In America

312 Words2 Pages

Prison reform has been an ongoing topic in the history of America, and has gone through many changes in America's past. Mixed feelings have been persevered on the status of implementing these prison reform programs, with little getting done, and whether it is the right thing to do to help those who have committed a crime. Many criminal justice experts have viewed imprisonment as a way to improve oneself and maintain that people in prison come out changed for the better (encyclopedia.com, 2007). In the colonial days, American prisons were utilized to brutally punish individuals, creating a gruesome experience for the prisoners in an attempt to make them rectify their behavior and fear a return to prison (encyclopedia.com, 2007). This practice may have worked 200 years ago, but as the world has grown more complex, time has proven that fear alone does not prevent recidivism. In the 19th century, Dorothea Dix, a women reformer and American activist, began lobbying for some of the first prison reform movements. …show more content…

She believed that people, no matter their crime, had the ability to change if they were provided the proper programs. (ushistory.org, 2016). Today many prisons that are offering programs to help rehabilitate and provide services to the prisoners are finding that more are enjoying successful outcomes upon release. One such program, the Reentry Court program in Louisiana, is offering training to inmates in trades such as plumbing and welding, providing them with valuable job skills which makes for an easier acclimation once they have served their time. (Ferner, 2015). Offering successful prison reform programs, like those of the past, will lead to a successful future for prison reform and help not just those with mental disabilities but all people acclimate to

Show More
Related
1314 Words | 6 Pages

This is when she wrote most of her books, staying up late to do so. Dix started the Asylum Movement, a reformation that led to the mentally ill and prisoners being given humane conditions to live in. She was physically ill most of her life, and it is suspected she suffered from depression and occasionally mental breakdowns, which may have encouraged her quest for reformation even more. Dorothea Dix represents conflict because she wrote books for the “Asylum Movement,” taught the mentally ill and prisoners, and caused the reformation of hundreds of hospitals. Dix was the eldest child and only daughter of Joseph Dix and Mary Bigelow.

Read More
837 Words | 4 Pages

Florence Kelley was a famous Progressive-Era social reformer known for her protective legislation on working women and children. From a young age, she committed herself to social reform like at Hull House in Chicago and also as the first general secretary of the National Consumers League. She later helped start National Association for the Advancement of Colored People(NAACP) who policy was “to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.” The famous case of Muller V. Oregon showed Florence’s conquest to establish labor laws against working long hours and bad working conditions. This case paved a way into new ideas and eventually created the labor unions we have today Florence’s father, Congressman William Kelley, was a social activist who fought for the poor.

Read More
552 Words | 3 Pages

Dorothea Dix Dorothea Dix reformed the conditions of prisoners and the mentally ill. Dorothea had realized that a few prisoners weren't even guilty, they just had mental illnesses. Dorothea´s life work became telling the public about the conditions the inmates were in and also the mentally ill. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott Early on, Elizabeth and Lucrecia had organized a women's rights convention in Seneca Falls.

Read More
1312 Words | 6 Pages

Dorothea Dix once said, "in a world where there is so much to be done, I felt strongly impressed that there must be something for me to do." In the 19th century, when Dorothea Dix was born and lived during, many changes were occurring in the United States. The War of 1812, then the Mexican-American War, and the Civil War all occurred during Dorothea Dix's lifetime, which likely had a large impact on her outlook on the United States and her visions for her own future. Dorothea Dix was a powerful, passionate woman, who change the world through her work in insane asylums and through her work as the head of nurses in the Civil War. Dorothea Dix's ancestry shows much of the woman she later became in her life.

Read More
157 Words | 1 Pages

Dorothea Dix began teaching at a women 's prison in 1841, She noticed they didn 't have any heat in the asylum, so she went to court and not only asked for heat but other things she thought was needed as well. In 1848, she asked the Congress for more than 12 million acres of land, for the mentally ill, and blind and deaf. The bill was approved. After that complication, she went to Europe and stumbled upon many new things. In 1856, she returned to the U.S and was named superintendent of nurses.

Read More
599 Words | 3 Pages

Dorothea quickly realized the horrible treatment the prisoners received especially those with mental illness whose cells had no heat. She quickly went to court and soon assured to provide heat for the prisoners along with other improvements. Dorothea founded more than 30 hospitals for the mentally ill.(Bio.com.) She changed the idea that mentally ill people cannot be helped or cured to that with treatment their mental state will become normal. She also was a committed critic of cruel and neglectful practices toward the mentally ill such as caging, incarceration without clothing, physical and sexual abuse from their keepers, and painful physical restraint such as chains.(Biography

Read More
1191 Words | 5 Pages

This preconceived notion could not be farther from the truth. In reality, these reform movements are idiotically placing a bandaid over the tremendous issue that the prison system is. An imbalance of reforms between women and men, unrestrained sexual abuse in women’s prisons, and tyrannical gender roles are just three of countless examples of how prison reform movements only create more misfortune and fail to provide any real solution to worsening prison conditions. Perhaps instead of conjuring up additional ideas on how to reform prisons, America’s so-called democratic society should agree upon abolishing prisons as a whole. This being said, it is crucial to identify ongoing issues in today’s society, understand how they contribute to unlawful behavior, and seek a solution.

Read More
420 Words | 2 Pages

As a result of her efforts in persuading the U.S. government over thirty mental hospitals were established across the state. Her work changed how society perceived, cared and treated the mentally ill today. Because of her advocacy today, people with intellectual and development disabilities are accepted in public school, and living in communities without any shame. Some of them are able to lead independent lives in the community without paid supports. Others live in group homes with minimal supervision, and a small percentage might have serious, lifelong

Read More
712 Words | 3 Pages

At the end of her life, Dix became very ill and spent the last few years in that hospital. In 1887, Dorothea Dix passed away leaving a legacy. During her lifetime, Dorothea Dix made many changes for the mentally ill and how they were treated in North America as well as in Europe. She changed many policies in prisons, by showing that the mentally ill belonged in hospital institutions rather than cells. Dix opened eyes of people across the country to see the mentally ill were not incurable.

Read More
766 Words | 4 Pages

First you hate them, then you get used to them. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That 's institutionalized.’ A prison should aim at retribution, incapacitation, deterrence and rehabilitation. I am very well convinced that prison has served its first three purposes by depriving offenders’ freedom, but the

Read More
507 Words | 3 Pages

Those who find themselves sentenced to time in a penitentiary, jail, or prison are at risk of either being broken or strengthened by the time they spend behind bars. There is a great debate of whether or not the prison system in the United States is positive or negative. The following will briefly highlight the positives, negatives, and possible alternatives for our nation's prison system. First, there is a long list of negatives that the prison system in America brings. The prison system is filled with crime, hate, and negativity almost as much as the free world is.

Read More
1728 Words | 7 Pages

The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for several reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. This literature review will discuss the ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system and how mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism has become a problem.

Read More
403 Words | 2 Pages

The clients that I work with have continued to function in spite of being incarcerated, having mental health, and substance abuse issues. The client’s often have faulty criminal thinking and have used self-medication that has caused them to get into their current situation which has resulted in their incarceration. If the clinician can assist the client in changing their thinking to positive non-criminal behavior the clients can move towards a better healthier

Read More
679 Words | 3 Pages

Thesis: It is very important for the sake of Americans tax dollars that we change the way that prisons are run and increase the productivity of inmates so when they are released from jail they are ready to be a productive member in society and have the confidence to achieve new goals. Introduction: Day after day, millions of inmates sit in jail doing nothing productive with their lives. We are paying to house inmates that may not even have a good reason to be there. For example, drug offenders are being kept with murderers and other violent offenders.

Read More
2121 Words | 9 Pages

This rehabilitation can encourage convicts

Read More

More about Dorothea Dix: The Role Of Prison Reform In America

Open Document