Dorothea Dix Witnessed In Prison

Every day is the same to you; you wake up, read the paper, and drink your coffee. You work at the East Cambridge Prison, where you keep the inmates in order by whipping them, chaining them up, and by not giving them food. You know that the conditions are wrong and inhumane, but it’s a well-paying job. You don’t speak out because you’re worried about your family and three kids at home who need to be fed. Stories like these occurred in prisons and mental institutions all around the world. The History.com editors, writers for a world renown history website, describe the awful conditions Dorothea Dix witnessed in prisons and mental institutions: “... flogged, starved, chained, physically and sexually abused by their keepers, and left naked and without …show more content…
Dorothea Dix, a reformer, went across the United States and Europe improving the lives of people that had been forgotten. She witnessed the mentally ill thrown in cages with prisoners. She spoke out and dedicated her life to correcting these institutions. She is an upstander because she spoke out about the inhumane and awful conditions that people overlooked. An upstander is a person who speaks out when something or someone needs help. She encourages me to do what is right and speak out when nobody does. Dorothea Dix, a 19th-century activist, was a strong upstander because she helped people throughout her life including her family, the mentally ill, and Civil War soldiers.
At a young age, Dorothea Dix had a passion for helping people. She was