HOWARD, Jou An English philanthropist, best known for his work in be half of prison reform. He inherited a consid erable fortune from his father, and spent his early life in travel. Settling at C'ardington, Bed fordshire, in 1756, he erected model cottages for his tenants, and furnished schools for children of all sects. In 1773 he was appointed high sheriff of Bedfordshire, and soon the defective arrangements of prisons and the intolerable dis tress of prisoners were brought under his notice. Finding that all the abuses he had seen at home existed in neighboring counties. he traveled all over the United Kingdom, and finally became a self-appointed prison inspector, not only of Great Britain and Ireland, but of all Europe. He gave evidence before the House of Commons, and in 1774 laws were passed for the improvement of the sanitation of prisons and the abolition of jailers' fees. In 1777 he published his State of the Prisons in England and 1Vales, with • . .
an Account of Some Foreign Prisons. After each of his many tours new editions, with addi tional facts, were published. One important re sult of this book was the adoption of the hard labor system in English prisons. In 1785 Howard investigated the infection hospitals of Europe, with a view to discovering the best means of pre venting the plague, and published An Account of the Principal Lazarettos in Europe (1789). He died of camp fever, while studying the Rus sian military hospitals. He was a man of deep religious feelings. He traveled more than 50,000 miles in making his investigations, on which he spent at least £30,000 of his own fortune, refus ing all Golernment aid. Of the numerous works on Howard, consult. especially. his Correspond ence, edited by J. Field (1855). and lives by Hep worth Dixon (1840). by J. Field (1850). and by John Stoughton (1853; new ed. 1834).