Summary Of Memorial To The Legislature Of Massachusetts By Dorothea Dix

In 1843, Dorothea Dix published a report titled a “Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts,” after two years of examining the poor conditions of local poorhouses and prisons. In this document, Dix requests the immediate improvement of the well-being and livelihood of the insane and imprisoned through the separation of these two parties into different institutions. Dorothea Dix uses elaborate details and descriptions from her tour of Massachusetts almshouses and prisons to explain the deplorable conditions in which convicts, and the insane and mad are forced to live in. Dix also documents the positive reform and successful rehabilitation of some of the mentally ill when they were moved away from institutions with convicts and given better

There was little to no proven means for rehabilitation, and generally, the mentally ill were viewed as useless for society. These unfortunate humans were also forced to house with convicts, despite having never committed a crime. Prompted by prison reform and direct government influence on social welfare in Britain, an American woman named Dorothea Dix sough to bring reform to the prison system within the United States. In 1843, she published a “Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts,” which set forth multiple provisions for changes to the penitentiary system in Massachusetts. This document was very significant in the prison reform movement because it was the first of its kind in the United States to describe in detail the poor conditions the insane were forced to live in. The document also put forward the proposition that the mentally ill can improve and become useful members of society, and that the convicts and the insane should not be kept in the same

One woman is described as, “clinging to or beating upon the bars of her caged apartment... unwashed [body] invested with fragments of unclean garments... irritation of body produced by utter filth an exposure incited her to t he horrid process of tearing off her skin by inches,”(Dix 5). Dix also describes how cages were a commonplace within almshouses by stating, “Hardly a town but can refer to some not distant period of using [cages],”(Dix 4). In this manner, Dix is imploring the Massachusetts Legislature to take immediate action. By describing these wretched conditions, Dix gives evidence and reason for reformation. The indecent livelihood of the mentally ill brought to the surface by Dix brings to question the effectiveness of the current prison system in Massachusetts. These details also highlight in what ways are moral to care for the mentally ill. At the time, whips, cages, and other violent means are used to “care” for the insane. Dix's details of the human suffering brings to question if this is a moral way to treat fellow humans. Dix provides the legislature with their answer when she refers to this issue as “a sacred cause,”(Dix 28) which the legislature must address. Dorothea Dix's Memorial was unique in it presentation of the problem in graphic detail, while at the same time providing a proposed