Brockway, Zebulon Reed

Brockway, Zebulon Reed

(1827–1920) penologist; born in Lyme, Conn. An acclaimed prison reformer, he introduced courses and manual training at many of the institutions he served. As superintendent at the reformatory at Elmira, N.Y. (1876–1890), he turned the institution into a mecca for criminologists and reformers; he worked for passage of legislation that lightened prison sentences. He wrote Fifty Years of Prison Service (1912).

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.