Zebulon Reed Brockway (1828–1920) was a penologist and is sometimes regarded as the "Father of prison reform" in the United States.
Brockway was born in Lyme, Connecticut in 1828 and began his career as a prison guard at the state prison in Wethersfield, Connecticut at age 20. Brockway became a clerk at the Wethersfield prison by 23 years old. Later he worked as assistant superintendent of the Municipal Alms House in Albany, New York for four years. By 1854, he opened the Monroe County Penitentiary in Rochester, New York. In 1861 at age 33, Brockway became the superintendent of the prison in Detroit, where he attempted to introduce an "indeterminate sentence".
When he was in Detroit, he got the inspiration for his prison reforms from Moses and Amos Pilsbury, who also brought about prison reforms. He bagan his reforms in Detroit however, resigned in 1872 when his ideas were no longer accepted.
Before the Elmira Reformatory was built, Brockway was already made the superintendent in 1876. 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. Brockway believed that the primary reason to have a prisoner in custody was to rehabilitate and not simply just to punish. By giving them the moral and spiritual guidance that they needed, Brockway believed that this was the key to helping them become better and useful citizens. He also used the idea of indeterminate sentence which would allow a prisoner to get parole sooner than he expected, because Brockway did not believe in fixed sentences either. His rules had two sides. One side was if a prisoner was well behaved and abided by the rules, then he would be rewarded. If a prisoner did not abide by the rules then he would be punished. These sets of rules came under scrutiny.
In 1893, his administration endured investigation into accusations of brutality at Elmira, but he retired at the age of 72 in 1900 after further criticism. Brackway was such a popular man in ELmira that he was elected may five years later at 77. [1]
In 1912, he wrote Fifty Years of Prison Service.
Zebulon Brockway died in 1920 at the age of 92.