Mental Illness And Crime: What The Legacy Of Dorothea Dix Hath Wrought:
Dorothea Dix was the activist whose efforts led to the first generation of American mental asylums. At the age of 39, she happened to visit a local jail to do a Sunday school sermon for female inmates. She found that criminals, retarded people and the mentally ill all lived together in terrible, unheated conditions. When she asked why, she was told "the insane do not feel heat or cold" (Viney&Zorich, 1982).