Report of the Royal Commission on the care and control of the feeble-minded, Volume VIII.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded.
Date:
1908
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of the Royal Commission on the care and control of the feeble-minded, Volume VIII. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    IV.—Other Classes of the Mentally Defective. Weak minded sent, as Dr. John Macplierson pro])oses, to asylums, and others to a special Maci)iierson, prisoners—co/(/d. which should have no prison element in it at all, and should be built *’■ upon the village type with a central hospital for treatment and observation. Powers of Criminal Courts to deal with mentally defective offenders. Recommendation XL. 984. We have had no evidence laid before us with regard to the question whether it is desirable that the powers of criminal courts should be enlarged so as to enable them to deal more satisfactorily with mentally defective persons who cannot at present be certified as “ lunatic.” We are consequently not in a position to make positive recommendations. But we suggest that our recom- mendations on this subject in the English part of our report should be considered by the Secretary for Scotland. Mentally defec- tive prisoners to be sent to suitable institutions. Cf. John Maepher- son, Vol. III. i>. 31 c. 2, 21386. 985. Incidentally another point may here be mentioned. Under Sec. 89 of the Lunacy Act of 1857, which has for a long time been in disuse, a prisoner who during confinement is found to bo lunatic may be removed to an asylum and there retained after the close of his sentence, “until it shall be duly certified to one of His Majesty’s principal Secretaries of State that such person has become of sound mind.” Mr. Crombie, Secretary and Inspector of the Prison Com- c ronilae, Vol. mission for Scotland, thus states the case. He is asked by Dr. Dunlop : “ We have heard a great deal about Sec. 89 ; the witnesses have been fairly unanimous 24912’. Cf Spence Vol III. approving of it. You can tell us its working from a practical point of view ? ” 20863 20809. He replies ; “ We have had only one case, a case in 1903, of a man who was a pest to society in a small burgh in the north. The parochial medical officer refused to certify him as insane on discharge from prison. The next time he was in the hands of the police the ]4rocurator fiscal re]4orted to the sheriff that the parish medical officer declined to certify him, and the sheriff then, under Sec. 89, ordered an inquiry into the prisoner’s mental condition. He was certi- fied insane to the Secretary for Scotland, and was ordered to be transferred to an asylum. After being detained there for two and a half years, he was reported to be sane. On the matter being referred to the Secretary for Scotland, he ordered the man’s discharge.” The medical officer, it is admitted, had refused several times to certify the man, although he was known to have “such attacks of acute mania as required two or three attendants days on end.” One difficulty in the section is that it entails a division of authority ; and a simpler process would suffice for ensuring that prisoners who are accounted insane should not be set free on the termination of their sentences. Another difficulty is that while a prisoner the insane person is paid for by the State : when he has been discharged the cost of his maintenance should fall on the parish council, but the Act of 1857 does not settle this point expressly. Besides Section 89 of this Act there is in the Criminal and Dangerous Lunatics Amendment Act, 1871, a section (No. 6) which refers to similar cases. It provides for the detention of insane prisoners in lunatic asylums for the remainder of their sentence. This se(!tion should, we think, be put in operation in conjunction with Section 89 above quote(', and extended to mentally defective persons. Recommendation XXXIX. 986. We recommend that Section 89 of the Lunacy (Scotland) Act of 1857 be brought into regular use for dealing with cases of mentally defective persons in prison, and that it be amended so as to make it clear that the charge for the maintenance of such prisoners in institutions other than prisons shall fall on the funds of the local authority liable for their maintenance, unless in his discretion the Secretary for Scotland direct otherwise. AVe recommend further that the sixth Section of the Criminal and Dangerous lainatics Amend- ment Act, 1871,be retained and extended to cases of mentally defective persons. Mentally defec- tive inebriates. John Cunningham, Vol. III. p. 227. c. 1. p. 228. Motion, Vol. III. 21771, 21776. Henderson,V'ol. III. 23610, 23611. Clouston, Vol. III. 24364-24369. Inebriates Acts, 1879-1900, are not in all 987. Next of inebriates. The respects found to be satisfactory. Dr. John Cunningham, Medical Officer to the Cirgenti Home for Inebriates, states that mental enfeeblement is the cause of inebriety. The majority of inebriates admit that they began the use of alcohol at from sixteen to thirty years of age. The largest number of patients still come from the lower grades of society ; they have been “ in and out ” the poorhouse for years ; the majority have been confirmed inebriates from ten to tw'enty years. Of twenty-nine inmates discharged from the Cirgenti Home for Inebriates belonging to the Glasgow Corporation, eight had relapsed, five were in poorhouses, four had been