A philanthropist, Brand’s main interest was in the welfare of female jail inmates. She was appointed to the Los Angeles County Vocational Training Commission in the late 1940s, which oversaw the county jails. She rallied for better treatment of the women. “Look,” she once said. “If they had our backgrounds, if they had love in the home, respect at home, they wouldn’t be begging for love and affection. That’s why I scream and yell that the officers have to have respect for them. They cannot treat them like animals.”
She continued to inspect jails until about four years ago, when she no longer was physically able. She would tell the women that if they “have any problems, tell them you want to talk to Sybil directly,” says Commission secretary Paul Byrne. “She was that close to the women.” She campaigned for a new jail to house women, rather than use a floor in the men’s jail; the new facility opened in 1963, and the county named it the Sybil Brand Institute. While she favored the decriminalization of prostitution, she was no easy touch: she also advocated capital punishment. Brand’s age at death is unclear, but she believed she was 104. She died February 17 at her home in Beverly Hills.