A History of John Howard
Below you will find information relating to the name John Howard and why our organization is proud to carry his name.
John Howard was born in England in 1726, the son of a well-to-do London tradesman. At the age of 16, his father passed away and he inherited considerable wealth.
In 1755, there was a great earthquake in Lisbon which left thousands of people homeless. When he heard of the tragic news, John Howard set out for Lisbon to see what help he could offer. On his journey to Lisbon, the French captured his ship and he was placed in a dungeon with other prisoners of war. It was here that many believe John Howard's interest in prisoner reform began. He describes the prison as a filthy, dark and damp place where he and the other prisoners spent many hours starving. Here, the prisoners spent a whole week sleeping on nothing but a bed of straw. Eventually, John Howard was able to arrange an exchange for himself and his fellow prisoners.
Upon his return to England, John Howard lived on his country estate. It was at this time that he set forth to improve the conditions of his tenants, giving them better cottages and providing schools. Such manner of concern for workers was practically unheard of during this period and displayed his thoughtfulness for others.
In 1773, John Howard was granted Sheriff of Bedford. This title was considered more or less an honorary post, with most responsibilities being left to deputies. With his usual characteristic thoroughness and conscientiousness, John Howard entered into all the duties of the position. He sat in court during trials, visited every cell in the jails of his county and considered every prisoner's case closely. At this time Sheriffs, jailers and other officials connected with prisoners did not get fixed salaries; they just got fees that they legally or illegally extorted from prisoners.
When a person was sent to jail he had to pay fees to the jailer, even if later he was found to be not guilty. If he was unable to pay the fee, he was sent to gaol until he paid it. This injustice quickly captured John Howard's interest. He sought to have the system changed so that the jailers would be paid a fixed salary and would not continue to extract fees from prisoners.
In his efforts to better understand the situation, he visited the jails of several counties and was horrified by the conditions he found. He describes the dirt, dampness, insufficient food and water, unventilated underground cells, over-crowding, human filth allowed to accumulate, cruelty, gaolers dispensing beer and liquor in the gaols for their own profit, allowing men from the outside to come in and carouse with the prisoners to increase the sale of liquor and allowing orgies to go on unhindered.
Soon after, John Howard began to devote himself to a searching investigation of all prisons. He rode through England, Whales Scotland and Ireland, for hundreds of miles on horseback, studying the conditions. It is believed that John Howard visited every prison in these regions and every prisoner in every cell of each prison. He also went to the Continent to study jails and found that the jails were fewer, emptier, cleaner, more cheerful and better supplied with food and clothing. The reason for this was that in these countries the prisoners were put to work and not left in idleness as in England.
After three years of investigation, John Howard wrote a full report on prison conditions in England and other countries. He quietly had his report published at his own expense and then distributed free copies. The impact upon Parliament and the public was tremendous. Public opinion was aroused and many improvements were made in the jails.
Two particular incidents may be related which illustrated the courage and determination of this man. On one occasion he deliberately boarded a ship infected with the plague in Turkey so that he would be put into strict quarantine in prison upon landing at Venice, and this enabled him to study conditions there at first hand for forty days. On another occasion, after helping to expose conditions in the Bastille in France, he was denied entry into the country under threat of being put into the Bastille himself. However, so determined was he to make his investigations of jails in France, that he disguised himself as a doctor and entered the country. His identity was discovered and he had to flee.
John Howard died of a fever in Russia in 1790.
