Most people who were mentally ill in hospitals were treated as prisoners. They were put in dungeons, chained, and beaten. Urbanization allowed for more institutions for the mentally ill but the conditions in which they live did not improve. They were still being treated as criminals and most did not have access to light or heat. In the early 1800’s, Dorothea Dix watched this mistreatment occur in Massachusetts and began to establish over 30 hospitals that focused on the treatment of the mentally ill. She launched the change that allowed people to see the mentally ill as patients rather than prisoners. She led the asylum reform and changed the conditions in which most mentally ill people lived in the United States. Her model was that patients
