John Howard
(1726 - 1790)
Profession: Humanitarian
English philanthropist whose work to improve prison conditions is continued today by the Howard League for Penal Reform.
On his appointment as high sheriff for Bedfordshire 1773, he undertook a tour of English prisons which led to two acts of Parliament 1774, making jailers salaried officers and setting standards of cleanliness. After touring Europe 1775, he published State of the Prisons in England and Wales, with an account of some Foreign Prisons 1777. He died of typhus fever while visiting Russian military hospitals at Kherson in the Crimea.
