John Howard, English Prison Reformer

John Howard (September 2, 1726 - January 20, 1790) was a philanthropist and early English prison reformer. He was appointed High Sheriff of Bedfordshire in 1773, initially for a one-year period. Rather than delegating his duties to the under-sheriff as was customary, Howard inspected the county prison himself. He was shocked by what he found, and spurred into action to inspect prisons throughout England. Having visited several hundred prisons across England, Scotland, Wales and wider Europe, Howard published the first edition of The State of the Prisons in 1777. It included very detailed accounts of the prisons he had visited, including plans and maps, together with detailed instructions on the necessary improvements, especially regarding hygiene and cleanliness, the lack of which was causing many deaths. It is this work that has been credited as establishing the practice of single-celling in the United Kingdom and, by extension, in the United States. By 1784, Howard calculated that he had travelled over 42, 000 miles visiting prisons. His final journey took him into Eastern Europe, and into Crimea, where he contracted typhus on a prison visit and died at the age of 63

Restrictions Only for Ireland and United Kingdom

1700s 1726 1790 Eighteenth Philanthropist Reform Reformer Sheriff

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