Dr. John Galt started the first publicly supported, or community tax funded, psychiatric hospital in America. Administrators were concerned about having room to "store" the ill, but not in how they were treated. Dr. Galt had many revolutionary ideas about treating the insane, such as his belief that the mentally ill continued to have dignity. He also introduced "Talk Therapy," which is when the doctor talks out the problem with the patient.

      Louis Dwight was the founder of the Boston Prison Discipline Society, which was a group of people that frequently visited jails and attempted to improve conditions in prisons. They did so by collecting records and presenting their findings to the public and spreading awareness. He spread the Auburn system throughout America's jails, which was a method of punishment in which criminals were forced to work during the day, and kept alone at night. Dwight was a prison reform activist because when he visited prisons, he saw the unlivable conditions of prisoners and the mentally ill.