The Role Of The Philadelphia Society For The Miseries Of Public Prisons

Back then conditions in jail were appalling, especially the Wall Street Jail. Men and women, adults and children, thieves and murderers were all jailed in the same nasty disease-ridden pens. Rape and robbery occurred often. Jailors hardly cared at all for their prisoners or their well being. They would sell their prisoners alcohol, up to almost twenty gallons of it in one day’s time. Food, heat, and/or clothing could only be bought at a price. Quite often prisoners would die from cold or starvation. A group of apprehensive citizens, who called themselves the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, decided that this could not go on anymore. Their proposition would change the future for the way prisons were ran