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Dorthea Dix was a Boston woman who taught Sunday school at East Cambridge Prison. She was mortified to see that the prisoners were kept in chains and locked in cages, and children accused for minor thefts were jailed with adult criminals. What shocked Dorthea the most was how mentally ill people were kept. Most people who were judged "insane" were kept in dirty small cells.

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For two years she gathered  information about the horrors she had seen, preparing a report for the Massachusetts state legislature. "I come as the advocate of helpless, forgotten, insane and idiotic men and women," she said. "I proceed, gentlemen, briefly call to call your attention to the present state of insane persons, confined...in cages, closets, cellars, stalls and pens! Chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience!" Shocked by her report, lawmakers voted to create public asylums for the mentally ill.

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Dix’s campaign for humane hospitals for the insane, which she began in 1841, began to reach a climax after touring prisons, workhouses, almshouses, and private homes to gather proof of horrible abuses. After gathering her gruesome research and evidence, she made her case for state-supported care. Dix not only helped to create five humane hospitals in America, but also went to Europe where she successfully battled for human rights to Queen Victoria and the Pope.

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Dorthy Dix saw how bad prisoners were treated. She saw prisoners that were starved, chained, and physically and sexually abused, which led her to take action

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Although unsuccessful at first, America finally enjoyed about a decade of real reform. Idealism, plus hope in the perfectibility of institutions, started a new generation of leaders including Francis Lieber, Samuel Gridley Howe, and the incomparable Dorothea Dix. Their goals were prison libraries, basic literacy (in order to read the Bible), reduction of whipping and beating, commutation of sentences, and separation of women, children and the sick. This massively changed the lives of inmates and improved their living conditions for years to come.

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The goal was to create a better place for the people who were considered “mentally ill”. She achieved the goal by taking it to the Massachusetts legislature.