On this page, the website discusses the reality of healthcare in the United States prisons during the 1700 and 1800s.
Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia
Early colonization of prisons in the United States was influenced by England. In 1829 was America’s first prison, it was named Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. It became the main model for all prisons in America. During this time there was a huge emphasis on receiving consequences for your actions. Therefore most arrests were handled with equally meaning robbery and burglary could leave you with the death penalty.
Inside the medical center of a United States 1800's prison.
One big concept to discuss when talking about people being incarcerated is mental illness. Mental illness is one of the main struggles prisoners face. Back in the 1800’s there was a high demand for medical services, but the prisons just couldn’t afford them, leaving inmates struggling with illness and receiving little treatment or assistance. Almost all prisons were overcrowded with unhealthy conditions. Prisons had no choice but to pass different illnesses and diseases throughout the prison over and over in a cycle. Some diseases were smallpox, yellow fever, measles, and chicken pox.
A portrait of Dorothea Dix.
In 1841, a Boston woman named Dorothea Dix agreed to teach Sunday school at a jail. She could not believe her eyes of what she witnessed inside the prisons. She was shocked to see how the mentally ill patients were treated, they were locked away in dirty, crowded prison cells. If they were to do any little thing wrong they were whipped immediately. Dix and other reformers believed that the mentally ill needed treatment and care, not harsh punishments. For two years she built her case fighting for the mentally ill, because of Dorothea Dix, lawmakers voted to create public asylums for the ill. Due to her successes, she carried her case to other states. She had many other successes, including outlawing the cruel punishment of branding with a hot iron.
PRISON healthcare
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