ipl-logo

Reconstruct The Penal System In The 1830's

626 Words3 Pages

Asylums for the “Insane” In the 1830’s to 1840’s there was a pursuit by activists to reconstruct the penal system in the United States. These activists advocated for prison reform towards the treatment of incarcerated poor and mentally insane populations. During this time, prisons were used to contain criminals as well as certain Americans deemed undesirable members of society. The prison reform activist believe there should be some type of instructional rehabilitation offered to the prisoners instead of confinement. Their argument was based upon the theory that most criminal turned to a life of crime due to inadequate parental involvement and improper living conditions. The activists believed through proper care and instruction criminals could overcome their trouble childhoods and effectively eliminates their violent and depraved tendencies. Many activists felt that the inadequate resources available to the …show more content…

One such person was Mrs. Dorothea Dix. Mrs. Dix, a Massachusetts schoolteacher, visited a local jail to teach Sunday school services and was appalled at what she saw. The deplorable conditions that inmates were living in along with children who were locked away with adults caused Mrs. Dix to wonder if all jails were managed the same way. Mrs. Dix visited numerous other jails and found the living conditions just as bad. Local criminals and harden criminals were chained along with individuals who were mentally insane. Treatment for the mentally insane in those prisons was non-existent. These individuals were locked away and used as entertainment for the public. Mrs. Dix was inspired to push for prison reform on behalf of the mentally insane and the poor. She sent a letter to the Massachusetts State Legislature and argued that the construction of insane asylums for the mentally ill was not just a necessity but a right entitled to these

Show More
Related

Dorothea Dix's Address To The Massachusetts Prison Reform

1147 Words | 5 Pages

As a nurse and teacher at several prisons, Dorothea was able to have a first hand

Read More

Dorothea Dix Accomplishments

939 Words | 4 Pages

Many people went to jail for the pettiest things such as not paying their debt, yet were treated the same as a murder. Another major cause was the mentally ill who had done crimes, but were forced to live cruel living conditions in jail. In Dix’s life she went through

Read More

Summary Of The Documentary The New Asylums

602 Words | 3 Pages

Their are around 500,000 mentally ill people that are put away in prisons and jails. In the documentary “The New Asylums”,Ohio's state prison system reveals the issues that are ongoing with mentally ill inmates. The major problem we have today is that no one is taking care of the people of these people. Most mentally ill people live by themselves with no family or friends to take care of them and they are off their medications. The mentally ill come in to prison on non violent offenses such as disturbing the peace, trespassing, etc. After leaving mental hospitals they usually end up on the streets and become homeless.

Read More

Dorothea Dix Reforms

1944 Words | 8 Pages

In the early 19th century, mental asylums were horrific; patients were tortured, chained to the walls, and abused. Reforms began with the revealing of these inhumane conditions in asylums, societal misconceptions about mental illness, and the lack of government control. The transformative reforms, such as the British Lunatics Act of 1845, led to changes in patients' experiences from horror houses and neglect to gradually improving care, empathy, and safety. Dorothea Dix played a pivotal role in advocating for reforms, emphasizing the efficiency of moral treatment and the supposed "curability" of mental diseases. There were many critical reforms in the treatment of mental illnesses in the United States and British asylums, driven by advocates

Read More

The Wrongfully Imprisoned Holy Angels Middle School: Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

713 Words | 3 Pages

Lizbeth George English 8-2 The Wrongfully Imprisoned Holy Angels Middle School April 17, 2024 The Wrongfully Imprisoned A big issue I’m noticing in the novel Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson is that mass incarceration occurs not only due to misguided drug policy or excessive sentencing but also due to the number of people who are declared as poor or mentally ill and are just thrown into jail as their next resort instead of sending them to therapy to guide them. Furthermore, sometimes prisons are used as a substitute for therapy when someone has what is deemed as a mental illness. Consequently, prisoners often come out with their mental health worsened, creating more chances of that prisoner going back to jail again.

Read More

Law Enforcement And Punishment In The 1800's Analysis

625 Words | 3 Pages

After the riots that formed due to corruption by two separate law organizations, citizens and law officers began to reevaluate the system, by eliminating the revenge and disincentives between the officers. Correction Centers with the purpose of remodeling criminals began to pop up in the early 1800’s in the United States. Penitentiaries and asylums were a form of imprisonment for criminals and the mentally ill. Many of these institutions were dirty and crowded and were being reformed to fit the mentally ill’s

Read More

Death Penalty In The Late 1700s And Early 1900s

1621 Words | 7 Pages

Reformers like Dorothea Dix advocated for the insanity defense, which made it so that people who were mentally unstable or clearly insane would be put in a mental hospital instead of a

Read More

Community Mental Health Act Of 1963 Essay

1349 Words | 6 Pages

Introduction Prior to the mid-1960 virtually all mental health treatment was provided on an inpatient basis in hospitals and institutions. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 was established with its primary focus on deinstitutionalizing mentally ill patients, and shutting down asylums in favor of community mental health centers. It was a major policy shift in mental health treatment that allowed patients to go home and live independently while receiving treatment, (Pollack & Feldman, 2003). As a result of the Act, there was a shift of mentally ill persons in custodial care in state institutions to an increase of the mentally ill receiving prosecutions in criminal courts.

Read More

The Prison Reform In The USA During The 1800s

379 Words | 2 Pages

The prison reformation is one reform that took place during the 1800s. At the time, the treatment of prisoners was horrific. They were treated as if they weren’t even human. Prisoners were tied and locked up in chains and put in cages like animals. Children were also locked up along with adults for small charges and crimes that they committed.

Read More

Prison Reform 1800s

2232 Words | 9 Pages

She's the one who lives. The first step in reform was to separate prisoners by their specific needs and build more prisons across the nation. In an article by StMU Scholars discussing Prison and asylum reform, it states “Dix’s movement for the creation of asylums sparked the reforms of such institutions across the world, causing wholesale reevaluations of current institutions and the adoption of more appropriate facilities for the betterment and care of the mentally ill.” (Source D, pg#1). This shows that Doretha Dix’s influence to organize prisoners by their certain needs was an idea adopted and used throughout the country, creating the prison system later known as the “Auburn” and the “Pen Dix, as well as other notable reformers like Thomas Warton, saw crime spike in the 19th century as the country was growing with rapid immigration and knew that change needed to be made.

Read More

Asylum In The 19th Century

434 Words | 2 Pages

Question: What was the typical structure of an asylum in the mid-19th century? To what extent and in what ways are these 19th-century reformers’ beliefs about the nature and treatment of mental illness reflected in the physical design and operational organization of these facilities? Answer:

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of Deinstitutionalization

633 Words | 3 Pages

Prior to this, electric shock and lobotomies were the primary treatment of the mentally ill.[2] This new medicine, along with federal funding to community facilities and the belief by many that institutions were cruel and inhumane, fueled the release of the mentally ill into America’s communities. “In 1955, the number of those hospitalized grew to an all time high of 558,000 and they suffered from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and severe depression. Many had organic brain diseases such as dementia and brain damage from trauma. ”[2] This number would begin to decline, leaving many without help and institutions forced to close their doors for lack of

Read More

Lunatic Asylums

1160 Words | 5 Pages

Before the emergence of asylums, the burdening of caring for and keeping mentally ill individuals at bay was a domestic responsibility, resting entirely on an individual’s loved ones and local parishes. One of the first recorded asylums in the world was London’s Bethlem Royal Hospital, which admitted its first mentally ill patients in the early thirteenth century. Early hospitals were initially funded “in equal parts by a colonial grant and subscription.” Up until the late eighteenth century, treatment of the mentally ill was grounded on often privately run institutions built on commercial enterprise; there was little to no regard for patients. For almost a century after its emergence as a medical specialty at the turn of the nineteenth century, the field of psychiatry was limited to severely disordered, disabled, criminals, and socially deviant individuals confined to asylums, hospitals and madhouses.

Read More

Decriminalization In Hospital

1934 Words | 8 Pages

The movement towards deinstitutionalization has shown a significant shift away from psychiatric hospitals to community health centers; with the result being better management of mental health conditions and more fulfillment for many patients. Though this process has at times been fraught with controversy and has not taken a linear path, overall, major improvements have been made in the way mental health is viewed and treated in the United States. Prior to the modern mental health system we all know today, the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries believed that caring for the mentally ill should be left to the family, not society (Grob, 1994). Referred to as “distracted” or “lunatics,” there was a strong sense of burden associated with mental

Read More

Psychological Disorder History

1134 Words | 5 Pages

“Placing the mentally ill in facilities allowed members of the general public to ignore the problem. They didn’t see anyone who had a mental illness roaming the streets, and if they placed a person in an institution like this, they may not have come back to visit.” (Mental Health Treatment). In most cases those placed in the institutions were left with no visits from the outside. The conditions in which they had to live were unfavorable, and often they were meant with unspeakable cruelty.

Read More

More about Reconstruct The Penal System In The 1830's

Open Document