Social Reforms of America: Early to Mid 19th Century
Timeline
- In early U.S. prisons, prisoners were kept in isolation.
- The earliest North American reform centered in Philadelphia (1790) and in Auburn, N.Y., where systems of solitary confinement and congregate labor were introduced. These penitentiaries required the prisoners to maintain absolute silence.
- In the 19th century, they were permitted to work together, but only in silence.
- Reform efforts continued through the 19th cent., with two notable women, Elizabeth Fry and Dorothea Dix, among the reformers. British and Irish influences led to the practice of parole.
- At the end of the 19th century, prison reformers successfully advocated segregation of criminals by type of crime, age, and sex; rewards for good behavior; indeterminate sentencing; vocational training; and parole.
- In the late 20th century, prison populations in many countries began to explode as arrests for violent offenses and for possession of small amounts of illegal drugs increased.
- In the 20th centutry, reformers tried to eliminate unsanitary and demoralizing prison conditions. Reforms included the individualization of treatment, psychiatric assistance, constructive labor and vocational training, professionalization of correctional officers, and the introduction of work release programs.
