History

John Howard was the son of a deeply religious Englishman. Not interested in his father’s business and not having an academic aptitude, young John needed another outlet. His habit of exact observations on natural history soon found an object in the property that had come into his family in Cardington, near Bedford. There, his weak health would permit him to continue his scientific observations for the Royal Society, and there he could pursue his modest expectations of trying to help tenants on the property by providing better housing and paying for the education (23 boys and girls at one point). Regular schools were still a long way in the future.).

To complement his own education and hoping that health might improve, he traveled to France and Italy. On a trip to Portugal, John Howard first became aware of the horrors of prisons when the British merchant ship on which he was traveling was captured by a French privateer. He, his fellow passengers, and the crew were kept below deck in sub-human conditions for the rest of the voyage, then transferred to an even worse setting in a French dungeon. Eventually, John Howard was exchanged for a French naval officer.

In 1773, John Howard was appointed High Sheriff of Bedfordshire. Now in charge of an English jail, he was shocked by the abysmal and hazardous conditions of the cells. It was here John Howard seriously began his quest for prison reform, wanting to abolish atrocities, such as the wearing of spiked collars and chains, and prisoners paying jailers for release. He visited almost every county in England, Wales, and Scotland traveling no fewer than 7,000 miles in 1779 alone. Abroad, he visited many countries, often more than once, where his object was to obtain access to prisons, unfettered by official restrictions so that he might form an independent judgment as to whether the boasted clemency of some governments was fact or fiction.

John Howard assembled his experiences and observations into a booklet entitled �The State of the Prisons� which was published in 1777 and which eventually formed the foundation for what is known as the Penitentiary Act of 1779. In his book, John Howard argues passionately, as he demonstrated in his life, that all citizens must ultimately accept responsibility for the criminal justice system of the society in which they live.  John Howard died of The Plague in 1790, ironically while investigating the terrible prison conditions in Russia.

The Canadian history of the John Howard Society began with a group of church workers in Toronto in 1867. Their mission was to bring spiritual help to prisoners in the local jail. This small group became known as The Prisoners Aid Association and they recognized that the prisoners needed more than spiritual aid. Interest dwindled and The Prisoners Aid Association of Toronto became inactive in 1915.

In 1929 a citizens’ group led by the Toronto Chief of Police, General Draper reactivated the association as the Citizens Service Association. General Draper believed that the work of the police was undermined by the circumstances facing people on release from prison. The Citizens Service Association, staff by volunteers, provided practical help to ex-prisoners with housing, clothing and employment. In 1931 Reverend J. Dinnage Hobden formed a group in British Columbia under the name of The John Howard Society. The Society aided prisoners and ex-convicts in rehabilitation and re-integration.

In 1946 the Citizens Service Association changed its name and became the John Howard Society of Ontario. Most other provinces formed John Howard societies between 1947 and 1960. In February of 1962 The John Howard Society of Canada was formed when all provinces, except for Quebec, ratified a constitution. Quebec joined The John Howard Society in 1980. The Northwest Territories joined in 1994. Currently there are branches and offices of The John Howard Society in over 70 communities across Canada, provincial offices in all ten provinces and the Northwest Territories, and a national office in Ottawa.

John Howard
Society of Sudbury
204 Pine Street
Sudbury Ontario
P3C 1X5

Telephone:
705 673 9576
Facsimile:
705 673 1543

e-mail: office@johnhowardsudbury.com