Answer to Question 1
John Howard was the first English prison reformer. He was a sheriff who inspected the county prison and was shocked by the squalor in which the inmates lived. He was concerned that some inmates would be held indefinitely because they could not pay their jailor fee.
He was also concerned with the poor hygiene that produced plagues and other illnesses.
Howard proposed that clean water be provided and that inmates receive a proper diet and have access to adequate hygiene. He advocated for guidelines to hire qualified prison personnel. He also advocated for an independent inspection process to make sure these reforms were implemented.
Answer to Question 2
While the new laws were considered humane, public reaction against the display of convicts on the streets of the city and the disgraceful conditions in city jails led to the formation in 1787 of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons (renamed the Pennsylvania Prison Society in that same year). Members of the society were appalled by the overcrowded, unsanitary, and corrupt conditions of the Walnut Street Jail and appealed to the legislature for reform. In 1790, an act was passed that brought about sweeping reforms. The act authorized a penitentiary house with 16 cells to be built in the yard of the jail to carry out solitary confinement with labor for hardened atrocious offenders, thus removing them from the general inmate population.
