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Dorothea Dix Experience Of Insane Treatment In Prisons

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This movement has emerged due to the exposure of very poor treatment in prisons and asylums; prisoners are being punished “by flogging, branding, or hanging rather than extended prison terms”. In almshouses, the insane/poor are confined in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, and pens, suffering the abuse of being “Chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience,” according to Dorothea Dix. Upon teaching religious classes in the House of Corrections at East Cambridge, Massachusetts, Dix found that insane inmates were suffering from living in unheated cells. From here on, she personally visited jails and almshouses all over Massachusetts to gather first-hand evidence of abuse to deliver to the State Legislature. She has submitted a “memorial”

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