{{short description|American human rights activist (c. 1899–2004)}} {{about|the activist|the Los Angeles County jail facility named for her|Sybil Brand Institute}} {{Infobox person | name = Sybil Brand | image = Sybil Brand, 1986.jpg | alt = | caption = Brand in 1986 | birth_name = Sybil Morris<ref name=brand_obit>{{cite news|last1=McLellan|first1=Dennis|last2=Oliver|first2=Myrna|title=Sybil Brand, 104; Fought for Jailed Women|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-feb-19-me-brand19-story.html|work=The Los Angeles Times|date=February 19, 2004|page=B10|access-date=1 November 2015}}</ref> | birth_date = May 8, {{circa|1899}}{{efn|name=dob|Sources conflict on Brand's year of birth. She had variously stated she was born in 1899 or between 1901 and 1903.<ref name=brand_obit /> Brand's date of birth of record was May 8, 1902.<ref>Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014, Ancestry.com.</ref>}} | birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and given age|2004|02|17|104}}<ref name=dod>{{cite web|title=Sybil Brand Commission|url=http://sbc.lacounty.gov/#P177_16700|publisher=Los Angeles County|accessdate=September 5, 2014}}</ref>{{efn|Based on Brand's recorded 1902 date of birth, she would have been 101 years old when she died.}} | death_place = Beverly Hills, California, U.S. | spouse = Gabriel B. Leavy (December 6, 1926–19??)<ref>{{cite news|title=Wedding to be Event of March: Angeleno Will Marry Chicago Girl|work=The Los Angeles Times|date=January 23, 1927}}</ref><br/>{{Marriage|Harry Brand|June 30, 1933|February 22, 1989|end=died}}<ref>{{cite news|title=Publicity Man Takes Bride: Couple Fly to Nevada for Ceremony|work=The Los Angeles Times|date=July 1, 1933|page=A12}}</ref><ref name="harry_obit">{{cite news|last1=Folkart|first1=Burt A.|title=Last of Old-Time Hollywood Press Agents: Ex-Studio Publicist Harry Brand Dies|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-02-23-me-246-story.html|work=The Los Angeles Times|date=February 23, 1989|page=A1}}</ref> | children = 1 }}

'''Sybil Brand''' (née '''Morris'''; May 8, {{circa|1899}} &ndash; February 17, 2004)<ref name=dod />{{efn|name=dob}} was an American philanthropist and activist, best known locally for her work in improving jail conditions for women in Los Angeles. She was the namesake of the Sybil Brand Institute (SBI), a women's jail in Los Angeles County. SBI was closed after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.<ref name=brand_obit/>

==Early life== Sybil Morris was born in Chicago, Illinois<ref name=brand_80>{{cite news|title=Force Behind L.A. Women's Jail Still Going Strong at 80|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/971809/los_angeles_civic_leader_sybil_brand/|work=Santa Cruz Sentinel|agency=Associated Press|volume=127|issue=225|date=September 26, 1983|page=A5|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> to Jewish immigrant parents Abraham "A.W." Morris ({{circa|1877}}–1951)<ref>{{cite news|title=A. W. Morris Family Left $1,000,000|work=The Los Angeles Times|date=August 25, 1951|page=A1}}</ref> and Hattie Morris ({{circa|1883}}–1969)<ref>{{cite news|title=Services Held for Mother of Sybil Brand|work=The Los Angeles Times|date=September 11, 1969|page=C4}}</ref> sometime between 1899 and 1903, with some of her friends favoring the earliest year.<ref name=brand_obit/>{{efn|name=dob}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f3IvAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Included+was+only+one+Jewish+girl+beside+myself.%22|title=Western States Jewish Historical Quarterly|year=1974}}</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=July 2019}}

Her father, a stockbroker, relocated the family to Los Angeles when Sybil was two years old.<ref>{{USCongRec|1997|E2189|date=November 7, 1997}}.</ref> At age twelve, she began what would become a lifelong pursuit of charity and volunteering when she organized a diaper hemming program with the other girls in her class.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Baltad|first1=Nancy|title=Playgirl Image Rejected for Credo: 'Help Someone'|work=The Los Angeles Times|date=November 6, 1977|pages=WS1, WS7}}</ref> Brand would later recall being inspired by meeting a young triple amputee in a hospital at the insistence of her mother.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Savoy|first1=Maggie|author-link=Maggie Savoy|title=The Can-Do Lady Who Does It All|work=The Los Angeles Times|date=February 16, 1969|pages=D1, D13}}</ref>

==Prison reform== Already well-known in charity circles, Brand was first named to the Public Welfare Commission in 1945 by then-Supervisor Leonard Roach. In the 1950s, Brand was serving on a commission that inspected hospitals and jails in Los Angeles County. The only commissioner to volunteer to inspect the jails, Brand was appalled at the conditions in which women were jailed. At the time, some 1800 women were being held in facilities designed to hold 1300, on the thirteenth floor of the Los Angeles Hall of Justice.

After this incident, Brand led a drive to build a new county jail for women. On January 29, 1963, Los Angeles County opened the Sybil Brand Institute, which was forced to close after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Budget shortfalls delayed its remodeling and reopening. Women prisoners most recently have been housed in the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles.<ref name=brand_80/><ref>{{cite news|last1=Duncan|first1=Bill|title=Jail for Women: A Tribute to Sybil Brand|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/971887/sybil_brand_institute_dedicated_back/|work=The Independent Press-Telegram|volume=13|issue=16|date=December 13, 1964|location=Long Beach, California|page=33|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

==Personal life== In 1926, she married her first husband, Gabriel "Gabe" Leavy in Los Angeles; they had one son, George.<ref name=brand_80/> In 1933, she married her second husband, Harry Brand, who became head of publicity and advertising at 20th Century Fox.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

==Notes== {{notelist}}

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brand, Sybil}} Category:20th-century American philanthropists Category:American prison reformers Category:American human rights activists Category:American women human rights activists Category:Jewish human rights activists Category:Jewish American activists Category:American women centenarians Category:Jewish centenarians Category:Jews from Illinois Category:20th-century American Jews Category:20th-century American women philanthropists Category:Year of birth uncertain Category:2004 deaths Category:Women in Los Angeles