Zebulon Brockway
Zebulon Reed Brockway (
1827 -
1920) was a
penologist and is sometimes regarded as the "Father of prison reform" in the
United States of America.
Brockway was born in
Lyme, Connecticut and began his career as a prison guard at the state prison in Wethersfield, Connecticut. Later he worked as warden of the municipal alms house in
Albany, New York for two years. By 1854, he was head of the
Monroe County Penitentiary in
Rochester, NY. In 1861, Brockway became the head of the prison in
Detroit, where he attempted to introduce the "indeterminate sentence."
While warden at the
Elmira Reformatory in upstate
New York from 1876 to 1900, Brockway introduced a program of education, training in useful trades, physical activity, indeterminate sentences, inmate classification, and an incentive program.
In his later years as warden at Elmira, he was accused of running a corrupt and brutal establishment.
In 1912, he wrote
Fifty Years of Prison Service.
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A brief look at Brockway
