THE PROPOSED 
NEW ASYLUM 
FOR 
INSANE CRIMINALS, 
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. Editorial Opinions of the Press. 
STATE CHARITIES AID ASSOCIATION, 
21 University Place, 
New York, 19th March, 1887. 
At a regular meeting of the State Charities Aid Association, held at 
No. 21 University Place, in the City of New York, it was unanimously 
Resolved, That this Association recognizes the want of a separate 
asylum for the care and custody of the insane criminals of the state, and 
recommend the immediate passage by the Legislature of an act making 
adequate appropriation and provision for the establishment of such an 
asylum upon farm lands removed from the state prison at Auburn. 
A copy from the minutes. 
Wyllys Hodges, Secretary. 
Albany Argus, March 22, 1887. 
The bill providing for a new asylum for insane criminals, now before 
the committee of ways and means of the assembly, is one that should 
command the earnest attention of the legislature. The report of Drs. 
Stephen Smith, C. F. MacDonald and Comptroller Chapin, the committee 
appointed to look into the subject, shows, in the most conclusive man- 
ner, the necessity of better provision for the unfortunates now crowded 
in one of the smaller buildings attached to Auburn prison. The bill ac- 
companying the report is based upon the following recommendation : 
“ In view of the fact that the capacity of the asylum is already overtaxed 
to a degree that imperils the health and lives of both patients and employes, 
and the further fact that it will require at least a year or more from the 
time of commencement to the completion and occupancy of a new struc- 
ture, the commissioners would earnestly urge upon the attention of the 
legislature the importance of immediate action looking to the relief of 
the institution in the direction indicated.” The high character and emi- 
nent fitness of the gentlemen comprising the commission, to give the sub- 
ject all the attention it demanded, lend additional importance to the bill 
in question. 
A BADLY CROWDED ASYLUM-INCREASE IN THE CRIMINAL 
INSANE. 
New York Daily Tribune, March 25, 1887. 
Albany, March 24.—An effort will be made this week by the state 
prison authorities to get the legislature to take favorable action on the 4 
report of Ine commission appointed to determine the best method of pro- 
viding additional accommodations for the state insane criminals. The 
need for action is so urgent that unless additional accommodations are 
provided soon, some of these criminals will have to be set at large. The 
asylum for insane criminals is at Auburn and is connected with the state 
prison there. It was established in 1857 in order to provide a place for 
insane convicts and in obedience to the demands of physicians and others 
for a place to send the criminal insane so that the inmates of the ordinary 
asylums should not be obliged to associate with them. The present build- 
ing was put up by the state prison inspectors with an intention of accom- 
modating only sixty-four patients and these to be all men. Its structural 
arrangements were those of a prison rather than an insane asylum. An 
addition was made in 1874, providing accommodations altogether for 140 
patients. The present number of inmates is between two and three 
hundred, and there are a large number awaiting admission. There are 
now two patients in nearly every room, and extra beds are placed in 
the ward corridors nightly. The space for attendants and other neces- 
sary employes is ridiculously inadequate. Overcrowding is an evil, the 
consequences of which are to be dreaded in any asylum and doubly so in 
this institution where there is such a large proportion of patients who 
are subject to homicidal and other dangerous tendencies. Dr. Carlos F. 
MacDonald, the well-known expert, who is the medical superintendent of 
this asylum, speaking of the matter recently, said : 
“ I am in a constant state of apprehension lest a homicide may occur ; 
and if relief be not promptly granted, we shall have to notify the state 
prisons, penitentiaries, state reformatory and the other state asylums, from 
all of which institutions we receive patients, that no more can be received, 
except as vacancies may occur. This is a state of affairs which ought 
not to exist, but the difficulty is to get the public and legislators interested 
in the matter.” 
Superintendent Baker called the attention of the legislature last year 
to the matter, and l)r. Smith, president of the state board of health. 
Controller Chapin and Dr. MacDonald were appointed a commission to 
report on the matter. They have made a report urging the immediate pur- 
chase of a farm and the erection of buildings on it for the accommodation 
of the criminal insane. They strongly condemn the present building as 
wholly inadequate and badly located, being in the immediate vicinity of 
three railways and of numerous manufacturing establishments. Dr. 
MacDonald has experimented with good results by sending some patients 
out in the care of keepers to work on farms, and this method of employ- 
ing the insane is warmly commended. The urgent need of a new build- 
ing and the advisability of purchasing a farm, as recommended in the 
commission’s report, has also been strengthened by letters from the state 
commissioner in lunacy, the president of the Prison Association, president 
of the state board of charities, the State Charities Aid Association and 
asylum and prison officials in general. The expense will be about $300,000. 
The present building can be used for a female prison, and it will be needed 
for that purpose, as there are over eighty women convicts belonging to 
the .state in the New York city penitentiary alone, while the state is paying 
Kings and other counties also for the care of such convicts. 
The need of action by the legislature is very great, and Superintendent 
Baker is anxious that the public: should understand that the responsibility 
for the failure to act will not be upon his shoulders, as the legislature has 
all necessary information. EDITORIAL. 
From the New York Daily Tribune, March 27, 1887. 
'l'he need of additional accommodations for insane criminals in the 
asylum at Auburn is so pressing that the legislature would assume a serious 
responsibility in not passing the bill recommended by the commission 
which it created to report on the subject. The present overcrowded con- 
dition of the asylum, is very discreditable to the state. The number of 
inmates is over 30 per cent in excess of the accommodations, and the cor- 
ridors are nightly filled with cots. Superintendent MacDonald, who has 
a high standing as an insanity expert, says there is danger of serious 
results from this condition of affairs. Of course, the proper care, classi- 
fication and treatment of the insane is impossible under such conditions. 
The legislative commission, the state commissioner in lunacy and the 
officials of the state board of charities and of the asylums and prisons in 
general, urge the passage of the bill now before the legislature. It involves 
a comparatively small appropriation, but the legislature cannot afford to 
delay the matter on that account. 
AN ASYLUM WANTED FOR THE CRIMINAL INSANE. 
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 20, 1887. 
The report of the Commission on better provision for insane criminals, 
which has been printed and laid before the Legislature, is a document 
which discloses a condition of affairs which ought not to be permitted to 
exist in the great State of New York. The Commission comprises Con- 
troller Alfred C. Chapin, Hr. Stephen Smith, the State Commissioner in 
Lunacy, and Dr. Carlos F. MacDonald, Superintendent of the Asylum for 
Insane Criminals at Auburn. Prior to 1855 insane convicts were either 
detained in prison or sent to the State Lunatic Asylum at Utica, but by 
an act of the Legislature passed in April of that year the Board of State 
Prison Inspectors was authorized to make suitable provision in tine of the 
State prisons for the safe keeping and proper care of insane convicts. 
Under this act, in 1857, the State Prison Inspectors proceeded to erect on 
the premises of the Auburn Prison a building designed to accommodate 
sixty-four male patients. 'Phis building was enlarged by the addition of 
a wing in 1874, with accommodation for eighty patients, making its total 
capacity 144. The present number of inmates is 210, or 46 percent, in 
excess of the accommodation. In other words, the asylum contains sixty- 
six more patients than it has room for, so that it is necessary in numerous 
instances to compel two patients to sleep in rooms that were designed for 
but one and to place twelve in associate dormitories the proper capacity 
of which is but eight, besides placing extra beds in the ward corridors 
nightly. 'Phis is very prejudicial to the health of the patients as well as 
of those who have charge of them and likewise greatly disturbs the order 
and discipline of the house. It imposes upon the officers innumerable 
perplexing anxieties and responsibilities to which they ought not to be 
subjected. Overcrowding, as the Commissioners truly say, is an evil, the 
consequences of which are to be dreaded in any asylum and doubly so in 
this institution, where there is such a large proportion of patients who are subject to homicidal and other dangerous tendencies. They think that 
in order to meet a recent act of the Legislature which provides for the 
transfer of criminal lunatics from other State asylums, it is absolutely 
necessary that the accommodations for insane criminals should be increased 
to at least 450 at the earliest possible day. Unless this is done it is evi- 
dent that further admissions must soon be discontinued They also con- 
sider the present location of the Asylum objectionable, being in the 
middle of a city, close to three railroads, and affording no opportunity for 
employing the convicts in avocations for which they are fitted. They 
express their belief that the Asylum should be located on a farm of at 
least 250 acres, so that the patients can be kept at work. These views 
are sound and reasonable and should commend themselves to the good 
sense of the members of the Legislature. 
The bill which has been drafted to accompany this report authorizes 
the Commissioners to select and purchase a site which shall contain not 
to exceed 250 acres of suitable land on which to erect an asylum for 
insane criminals. The buildings are to be of sufficient size to accommo- 
date 450 patients and to be specially adapted to the wants of the criminal 
insane. The cost of the land and building is not to exceed $300,000. 
That the construction of such a building at once is necessary admits of 
no doubt, and it is to be hoped that there will be no delay in making pro- 
vision to supply a want which has been long felt and the need of which 
is urgent. 
ASYLUM FOR INSANE CRIMINALS. 
Utica Morning Herald, March 17. 
By an act of the legislature passed in 1886, a commission was appointed, 
consisting of Dr. Stephen Smith, state commissioner in lunacy, Alfred C 
Chapin, state comptroller, and Dr. C.#F. MacDonald, medical superin- 
tendent of the state asylum for insane criminals at Auburn, to report on 
better provision for the insane criminals of the state. Hitherto these 
criminals have been cared for in what is nothing more than an annex to 
the state prison at Auburn, since it is on the prison grounds, and is inti- 
mately connected with it. The building is entirely too small to accommo- 
date this class of criminals, being built to hold only 140 at the most, but hav- 
ing at the present time 210 patients within its walls. The pressing need 
of larger accommodations has long been felt and the gentlemen appointed 
on this commission issue a report which should be acted upon at once by 
the legislature 
After examining all the points in the case, they come to the conclusion 
that a new building should be erected, on a farm of 150 to 250 acres, and 
capable of holding at least 450 inmates. They discourage entirely the 
idea of placing the building where it will be regarded as a part of the 
state prison. They believe in the restorative influence of agricultural 
labor, and they believe that the institution can, by means of the work of 
its patients, be made partly to pay its way. They suggest that the present 
building can be used as a state prison for convict women, or possibly 
might be needed for offices for the prison at Auburn. At all events, the 
over-crowding of inmates sent there from all over the state is injurious 
not only to their health, but to the conditions necessary to restore them 7 
to a sound mind. The commissioners are also of the opinion that the 
insane whose terms of sentence have expired, should not be discharged 
unless their restoration has been brought about. Such patients are now 
often sent to the county house asylums, and sometimes even to the state 
asylums, at Utica, and elsewhere, where they are brought into contact 
with non-criminal lunatics, and their presence is “obnoxious and demor- 
alizing to the more respectable lunatics.” This is a correct view of the 
case, as all thinking persons must admit. No one who is unfortunate 
enough to have friends in these asylums would be willing to have them 
associate with the viciously insane, who have spent a term of sentence in 
an institution filled with criminals. 
The bill drawn by the commissioners asks for an appropriation not to 
exceed $300,000, to buy the farm and to erect the necessary buildings. As 
it will require at least a year from the time the buildings are commenced 
before it can be occupied, there is need that the legislature should pass 
the bill at once. The longer the time that elapses, the worse will become 
the crowded condition of the annex at Auburn. Moreover, every month 
some of these patients are being discharged at the expiration of their 
sentence, to be carried off to some of the state or county asylums. Here 
they are again discharged sometimes, but only to commit fresh crimes and 
cost the people of the state more money to try them and send them back. 
It is certainly wiser to spend the money in measures to overcome their 
disease and render them useful members of society. The bill is deserv- 
ing of immediate action ; and inasmuch as the commission was created 
by the legislature, that body should have faith in the wisdom of its rec- 
ommendations. 
AN ASYLUM FOR INSANE CRIMINALS. 
We have before us the report of the commission appointed by the last 
legislature to consider the necessity for better provision for the insane 
criminals of the state. The commission consisted of the Hon. Alfred C. 
Chapin, state comptroller ; Dr. Stephen Smith, state commissioner in 
lunacy, and Dr. Carlos F. MacDonald, superintendent of the state asylum 
for insane criminals. It gives a review of the provision made by the state 
for this class of the insane, and points out the need of further action in 
their behalf. 
In 1855, the state of New York first erected an asylum for insane con- 
victs to accommodate 64 patients. In 1869, the scope and title of the 
institution was changed to that of “State Asylum for Insane Criminals,’’ 
thus legalizing the reception of all such patients as had committed a crim- 
inal act, and allowing their transfer from the various state asylums in 
which they are confined. This act so increased the number to be provided 
for that in 1874 an addition was made to the institution to accommodate 
80 more patients, or 140 in all. This number has increased until at the 
present time there are 210 inmates, an excess of more than 30 per cent, 
beyond the proper capacity. This excessive over-crowding is especially 
unfortunate with the dangerous class of lunatics. There are other serious 
disadvantages which should be overcome. The asylum is located within 
the grounds of the state prison at Auburn, and is practically under prison 
Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, March 18. 1887. 8 
management. There is no land connected with it and from its being in 
the city of Auburn no possibility of securing any. The men patients, 
who constitute the larger share of its inmates, have no opportunity for 
labor to assist in their own support, or to gain needed occupation or 
proper exercise. 
These, in condensed form, are the arguments upon which the commission 
base the bill accompanying their report. This bill provides for the purchase 
of a tract of land sufficient to furnish employment for the patients and 
the erection thereon of an asylum for their use. They propose to utilize 
the present structure for women convicts, of whom those now supported 
at the expense of the state, in the penitentiaries of New York and Kings 
counties, there is a sufficient number to nearly fill the capacity of the 
institution. 
The whole subject is one of great importance and should receive the 
careful attention of the Legislature. The high standing of the gentlemen, 
composing the commission and the force of their argument, go far toward 
convincing the unprejudiced observer, of the justice of their plea for 
legislative action, for the better provision for the criminal insane. 
From Springfield, (Mass.,) Republican, March 26, 1887. 
The condition of affairs at the Auburn asylum for insane criminals, 
if reports are true, is a disgrace to the Empire state. Quarters originally 
intended to accommodate 140 patients are made to do service for nearly 
twice that number. There are two patients in nearly every room, and 
extra beds are placed nightly in ward corridors. Considering the fact 
that a large number of these patients are subject to homicidal tendencies, 
the present situation is a source of constant danger. The matter of pro- 
viding additional accommodations is now before the Legislature. 
TOO MANY INSANE. 
New York Sunday News, March 27, 1887. 
The demand for more accommodations for the insane in the State Asy- 
lum at Auburn, is another evidence of the increasing burden on society. 
The asylum in Auburn is intended to accommodate only the criminal insane. 
It was built for sixty-five patients and now has between two and three 
hundred. It is in a shamefully overcrowded condition, there being two 
inmates in each room, and the corridors being filled nightly with cots. 
Dr. Carlos F. MacDonald, the medical superintendent, has had to refuse 
any more patients, while he reports great danger from the present over- 
crowded condition of the asylum. 
PROPOSED NEW ASYLUM FOR INSANE CRIMINALS. 
From Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, April Number. 
We learn that a bill for the better provision of insane criminals is now 
before the committee on ways and means of the assembly at Albany. 9 
While considerable progress has been made toward the more successful 
treatment of our ordinary lunatics in state asylums and private institu- 
tions, the criminal insane (and how many of them are criminal because of 
their insanity?) have not been properly provided for in this or any other 
state as far as we know. The asylum at Auburn has done pioneer work 
in this direction, but the report prepared by Drs. Stephen Smith, C. F. 
MacDonald and State Comptroller A. C. Chapin, has convinced us that 
that institution is sorely in need of improved opportunities and better 
facilities in the way of larger structures and available farm land. At 
present the proximity of the institution to the prison is decidedly obnox- 
ious, while a lack of proper accommodations and the enforced confinement 
of a large number of insane within asylum walls, deprive them of health- 
ful exercise and remove the one chance of recovery, which work in the 
open air so often brings to these unfortunates. We hope, therefore, that 
the legislature will grant the relief asked for and that it will above all, 
understand the necessity of supplying opportunity for agricultural work. 
The superintendent of the asylum at Auburn is fortunately on the com- 
mission. Under his guidance and the watchful eye of Dr. Stephen Smith 
and Comptroller Chapin we may rest assured that all plans will be ably 
and conscientiously executed. 
THE STATE ASYLUM FOR INSANE CRIMINALS. 
From American Journal of Insanity, April, 188~. 
The Legislature of 1886 passed an act providing for the appointment of 
commissioners to determine the best method for enlarging the existing 
provisions for insane criminals in this state. The commissioners ap- 
pointed were Dr. Stephen Smith, State Commissioner in Lunacy, Hon. A. 
C. Chapin, Comptroller, and Dr. C. F. MacDonald, Superintendent of 
State Asylum for Insane Criminals at Auburn. Their report has been 
submitted to the present Legislature, and constitutes Assembly Docu- 
ment No 62. 
The Auburn Asylum and that at Ionia, Michigan, are the only institu- 
tions of the kind we have in this country as yet ; though it is a matter 
well settled in the minds of all specialists on this subject that ordinary 
patients should not be associated with insane criminals. Perhaps the fact 
of association with a state prison has formed a principal obstacle to the 
more extensive adopt on of this plan. At all events, the report before us 
very convincingly argues for the removal of the institution from all asso- 
ciation with the penitentiary and for placing it on a. separate and inde- 
pendent footing, as a charitable and not a seemingly penal institution. 
Especially should this be the case where there are so many instances of 
persons committed whose crimes, so-called, may be the first evidence of 
their insanity, who could not be even indicted, much less made convicts, 
on that account, but who, nevertheless, under a judge’s order or a jury’s 
finding, are made proper subjects for such an asylum. 
The committee urgently recommend that a new asylum should be 
erected, at a distance from the present, on a farm of 150 or 200 acres, 
which would furnish the best means of labor and exercise, from which 
the patients are now debarred, and that in other respects the treatment 10 
and surroundings should be assimilated to that of, the other existing 
institutions, both for those who on recovery are remanded to the juris- 
diction of the courts, or those who on expiration of sentence simply fall 
into the class of chronic insane. 
The report closes with a draft of the proposed law, appropriating 
$300,000 for these purposes, which it is to be hoped may be adopted. 
The accommodation contemplated (for 450 patients), is certainly none 
too large to meet the proportion of insane in the state, allowing the pres- 
ent building to be relinquished to the sole occupancy of female convicts. 
THE CRIMINAL INSANE. 
In one of the smaller buildings attached to the state prison at Auburn, 
designed for the limited accommodation of 140 patients, are now crowded 
210 insane criminals. This inadequate asylum, was opened in 1859, and 
since that time, 896 patients have been received. To many of our readers, 
whose attention has not been especially called to the subject, doubtless 
this statement of the number of insane criminals will be surprising. 
Naturally, the question is asked at once, what has become of the 600 
or 700 patients, who have been committed to this asylum, but are not now 
in its care. The majority of them have been transferred, at the expiration 
of their terms of sentence, to the care of the superintendents of the poor 
in the counties wherein they were convicted. Thus some of them have 
found their way of escape, have again indulged in the crimes, for which 
their special mania gives them predilection, and have again been brought 
to the state asylum for insane criminals. Others have been sent to county 
asylums, or state asylums. It is as obviously unjust that the inmates of 
ordinary asylums, should be compelled to associate with criminals, as it is 
obviously improper to force insane persons to endure the scanty accom- 
modations, confinement, and monotonously rigorous routine of an ordinary 
prison. What, then, is to be done with these unfortunate men and women ? 
Last year a commission, consisting of Dr. Stephen Smith, state com- 
missioner in lunacy, Comptroller Chapin, and Dr. Carlos F. MacDonald, 
superintendent of the state asylum for insane criminals, was appointed in 
accordance with an act of the legislature, to determine the best method 
of providing additional accommodations for this class, decide upon the 
expediency of providing farming lands for their occupancy and employ- 
ment, and report to the legislature. This task the commission has per- 
formed and its report, recently transmitted, is before us. 
Aside from the fact of over-crowding, the commissioners show that 
the present asylum at Auburn is not able, in many respects, to supply 
some of the most essential aids in the treatment of the insane. There 
are no facilities for furnishing suitable employment to those who can 
work, no .opportunity for the right kind of exercise, no facilities for either 
employment or recreation within doors in bad weather, no adequate 
accommodations in respect of dormitories, laundry, dining-rooms, ice- 
house, etc. In short, the asylum at Auburn (made from the material of 
an . abandoned prison building) is wholly inadequate and unsuitable for 
the work expected of it. The commissioners say it is needed by the 
prison proper and should be abandoned as an asylum for the insane. 
Elmira Daily Advertiser. March Hi, 1887. 'The commissioners urge the necessity of providing a farm whereon 
patients may work and benefit the state while greatly benefiting themselves. 
The abundance of fresh air, freedom from the day and night noise of 
the heart of a city, and from the annoying scrutiny of the curious, exer- 
cise, sunlight, and the other concomitants of such a life, supply an environ- 
ment of the best character for the assistance ot the curable and the relief 
of the incurable. 
In accordance with their instructions the commissioners present a bill 
embodying the plans which they think meet the requirements of the case. 
It calls for the selection of a site which shall contain not more than 250 
acres of suitable land, the construction of a building to accommodate 450 
patients and adapted to the requirements of the insane and provides for 
the appropriation of a sum not exceeding $300,000 for the purpose of 
carrying out the law. 
The bill is now before the legislature in the hands of the committee of 
which Mr. Erwin is chairman. It has the approval, it is said, of the state 
commissioner in lunacy, the president of the state board of charities, 
prison association, state charities association, superintendent of prisons 
and all prison and asylum officials who are conversant with the subject. 
It will undoubtedly become a law, as the necessity of the case is apparent 
and instincts of humanity as well as considerations of state policy de- 
mand that something be done to meet it. 
ASYLUM FOR INSANE CRIMINALS. 
Albanv Daily Press and Knickerbocker, March 34, 1887. 
Dr. Carlos F. MacDonald, superintendent of the state asylum for insane 
criminals, and Dr. Stephen Smith, state commissioner in lunacy, appeared 
before the ways and means committee on Tuesday in behalf of the bill to 
establish a new asylum for insane criminals. The bill is based on the 
report of a commission appointed by the last legislature, consisting of 
the gentlemen named above, and Comptroller Chapin, to determine the 
best method of providing additional accommodations and the expediency 
of purchasing farming lands for the industrial occupation of insane crim- 
inals. The commissioners were required to “report the result of their 
inquiries to the present legislature, together with a bill embodying such 
plans as will best meet the requirements in the premises.” The bill pro- 
vides for an appropriation of $>300,000, for the purchase of a farm of 250 
acres and the erection thereon of suitable buildings to accommodate 450 
patients, the work to be done under the direction of the present commis- 
sioners, all of whom are state officials of high standing. 
The present asylum building is located in contracted quarters on the 
prison grounds at Auburn. It was erected nearly 30 years ago and is ill- 
adapted to the present needs, being insecure and destitute of lands for 
the labor and out-door exercise of the patients, most of whom are males. 
The population of the institution is now more than 30 per cent in excess 
of its capacity, and is steadily increasing. 
The subject is one of great importance, and the legislature should very 
promptly grant the relief asked for. The character and ability ot the 
gentlemen comprising the commission is a sufficient guarantee that the 
work will be faithfully and economically executed. AN ASYLUM FOR INSANE CRIMINALS. 
Albany Times. March 25, 1887. 
There is now a bill before the legislature to provide for the erection of 
a commodious asylum for insane criminals. With a prison population in 
this state of about 4,000, not counting the population in county peniten- 
tiaries, there is only one institution for the treatment of insane criminals 
in the state, and that was built thirty years ago, so that it is entirely 
inadequate now. It is indeed an adjunct of the Auburn State Prison and 
not only is it inadequate in size, but ill-fitted for the purposes of its erec- 
tion by its location anti surroundings. The present bill proposes the 
erection of an asylum on a site away from city surroundings, on 250 acres 
of suitable land, at an expenditure not to exceed $300,000. 'The location 
of such an asylum in a country district is one of the requisites of its per- 
fect usefulness. The present inadequate asylum adjoining Auburn prison 
presents no relief to the mental or the physical worries of the patient. 
He is in sight and sound of the prison and the clamor of its machinery, 
and his distorted mind can receive no impressions other than those con- 
veyed by his imprisonment, from which in many cases insanity was in- 
duced. There is no opportunity for out-door exercise. There is little 
more benefit of the blessed air of heaven, than lie received in his prison 
cell or at his prison work-bench. The change is only from the discipline 
and labor of the penal establishment and the horrors of his convict cell, 
to possibly a better bed, kindlier attendance, and idleness. In 1883, say 
the commissioners, the experiment of sending patients out on farms in 
the vicinity, to work on shares, was tried and successfully carried out. 
Care was taken to select only such patients as could be relied upon to 
conduct themselves with propriety, each squad being under the charge of 
one or more attendants. At one time upwards of thirty patients were 
thus employed, their labor yielding to the asylum a sufficient amount of 
corn to fatten thirty swine, and enough husks to fill nearly all the beds ; 
also about half the quantity of potatoes and all the turnips required for 
the following winter. While no money consideration was asked or re- 
ceived for the labor, the asylum was undoubtedly pecuniarily benefited 
thereby, in the matter of supplies obtained ; but this was regarded as of 
secondary importance in comparison with the marked benefit, mentally 
and physically, which the patients derived from being thus pleasantly 
and usefully occupied. In fact, a noticeable improvement was observed 
in the condition of every patient sent out ; and in two instances in which 
a recovery was not anticipated, complete recovery ensued. 
The benefits which resulted from such experiments were, however, 
secured at the cost of much embarrassment and trouble, for it is not an 
easy matter to take care of large squads of insane people, even where 
they are not viciously inclined, and the draft on the operating force of 
the regular asylum must have been too great. With the new building, 
erected as other asylums are in the open country, with farm lands attached, 
the daily occupation of nearly all the inmates could be easily carried on 
in farm labor, where health and revenue would each be forwarded. A 
great argument for the employment of the mass of our criminals is that 
it is humane and necessary to health. To those among them who are 
insane, the argument of humanity applies with greater force than to the 
mass of sane criminals. 13 
Moreover, the means of employment for the insane can hardly be ex- 
tended beyond agricultural labor. It would not be safe, any more than 
it would be conducive to the health of the patients, to employ them in 
the operation of machinery, or in the usual manual labor even of shoe- 
soling or brush making. The exercise of the body, the breathing of fresh 
air, the play of the fancy, sometimes the brighter for a mental affliction, 
the sense of liberty, the charm of a beautiful view, all necessary to the 
invalid or the insane, would all be lacking, while danger and waste would 
be imminent at all times. The state can do no more humane act, nor one 
which would repay the doing in a more beneficent manner, than to erect 
such a building on such a site as the commission have recommended in 
their report. The bill ought to pass. 
THE PROPOSED ASYLUM FOR INSANE CRIMINALS. 
The legislature of last year appointed a commission consisting of I)r. 
Stephen Smith, state commissioner in lunacy, State Comptroller Chapin, 
and Dr. C. F. MacDonald, superintendent of the asylum for insane crim- 
inals, to determine the best method of providing additional accommoda- 
tions for, and the expediency of furnishing farming lands for the indus- 
trial occupation of insane criminals, the commission to report to the legis- 
lature the result of their inquiries, “together with the bill embodyingsuch 
plans as will best meet the requirements in the premises.” 
The report of this commission, a copy of which is before us, sets forth 
in considerable detail the history of the present asylum, which originated 
in a recognition of the necessity of providing for a separation of the crim- 
inal from the non-criminal insane. The first step in this direction was taken 
by the legislature of 1855, by the enactm ent of a law requiring the then 
board of state prison inspectors to make suitable provisions, in one of 
the state prisons, for the safe keeping and proper care of all the insane 
convicts then in the state lunatic asylum at Utica. The legislature of 
1857 provided twenty thousand dollars to carry out the purposes of this 
act ; but restricted the1 provision to men only, and directed that insane 
convict women should be sent to Utica, as heretofore ; also that the money 
should “ be expended upon the ground occupied by the state prison at 
Auburn.” It is probable that the legislature, at that time contemplated 
simply an annex, or insane department, in connection with the prison, and 
for the accommodation only of male convicts from the state prisons. 
The original structure, with capacity for about sixty patients, was com- 
pleted in >859. An additional wing to accommodate eighty patients was 
erected in 1874, making a total capacity of one hundred and forty. No 
more additions have been made to the building, although the scope of the 
asylum has been greatly extended by subsequent legislation, until the 
source from whence it receives patients includes the three state prisons, 
six county penitentiaries, the state reformatory, state house of refuge for 
women, cases of so called criminal lunatics (persons accused of crime, 
but acquitted on the ground of insanity,) from all of the state asylums, 
and the same class of cases from the courts direct. About 900 patients 
have been admitted from these various sources since the asylum was 
opened. The present number of inmates is 210, being more than 30 per 
cent in excess of the proper capacity of the building. We understand 
that the annual admissions have increased about 200 per cent during the 
present decade ; thus steadily augmenting the average resident popula- 
From the Auburn Daily Advertiser, March 23, 1887. tion, in spite of the obviously objectionable practice, to which the super- 
intendent has been compelled to resort, of sending convict patients back 
to the counties of their convictions as fast as their sentences to penal ser- 
vitude expired, in order to make room for others of a more violent and 
dangerous type. Many of the single rooms are now occupied by two 
patients while eight bed dormitories contain, twelve ; it is also necessary 
to place extra beds in the ward corridors ; thus seriously encroaching on 
the already too limited day room space. Such a condition of affairs— 
especially among the criminal insane, many of whom are violent and hom- 
icidal— with its attendant danger to the health and lives of the inmates 
and their not to mention the added perplexing anxieties and re- 
sponsibilities imposed upon the officers, is one that urgently calls for im- 
mediate relief. The situation imposes upon the legislature a serious and 
important duty, which it should not hesitate to discharge by promptly 
passing the bill for relief which is now before it. In fact provision of a 
properly arranged asylum of sufficient capacity to accommodate all of 
the criminal insane, and located on a farm of ample acres to afford use- 
ful and healthful occupation to its inmates, would seem to be the only 
reasonable solution of the problem in question. 
The present location of the asylum, adjacent to the prison and in a 
thickly settled part of the city, hedged in by factories, railroads, &c., all 
of which are disturbing elements, is most unfortunate ; while the lack 
of room for expansion to meet the necessities of its steadily growing pop- 
ulation, and the still greater lack of farming lands, the cultivation of which 
would afford healthful and profitable occupation to its inmates, present 
serious obstacles to successful treatment which medical skill and execu- 
tive ability, however well applied, are powerless to overcome. These 
defects have frequently been pointed out, and suggestions for their relief, 
as above outlined, made in the respective annual reports of the medical 
superintendent of the asylum, and state commissioner in lunacy. 
The views of the commissioners regarding location, etc., after examin- 
ing the whole situation, are fully in accord with those held by the Advertiser. 
The bill accompanying the report authorizes the commissioners to select 
and purchase a site, which shall contain not to exceed 250 acres of 
farming land, and to erect thereon the necessary buildings to accommo- 
date 450 patients, and adapted to the requirements of the criminal insane, 
at a cost of $>300,000. The sum asked for is reasonable, and it is hoped 
the legislature will not hesitate in granting it. 
THE INSANE ASYLUM. 
The report of the commission regarding the State Asylum for Insane 
Criminals in this city, a very full synopsis of which is printed in another 
column of this paper, will prove very interesting reading. The facts it 
states about the present insufficiency and unsuitableness of the asylum 
for the purpose to which it is devoted will surprise no one who is ac- 
quainted with it and its working's. These have been matters of common 
talk long enough. The attention of the legislature has been called to 
them often enough, so that they lack the charm of novelty. The propo- 
sition, however, to build a new asylum on a farm, location not named, will 
prove new to most Aubufnians,.and the further proposition to create of 
the present asylum a prison for women convicts will be novel to all. As 
to the first, it is certainly7 true that farm work is beneficial to many luna- 
Auburn Bulletin, March 12, 18S7. tics. If it were not so, the Auburn institution would not be the only of 
this state’s asylums, as we think it is, not provided with one. There is no 
reason why an insane criminal should not have every advantage for recov- 
ering sanity that is given the lunatic who is not also a felon. In such 
misfortune, no distinction can be justly made between the just and the 
unjust. As to the second proposition, the state now has nowhere to send 
its women felons, except to the penitentiaries owmed by the counties, 
where their maintenance is a constant burden, and where they may or 
may not be properly cared for. There was a time when they were sent 
to Sing Sing, but that has been done away with from necessity. Why not, 
in case the first suggestion of the commission is adopted, also adopt the 
second ? Economy and humanity both demand it, 
THE CRIMINAL ASYLUM PROJECT. 
Auburn Morning Dispatch March 17, 1887. 
The report reeently submitted to the legislature by the commission on 
Better Provision for Insane Criminals is of special interest as showing the 
over-crowded condition of the asylum here. Tracing briefly the history 
of the asylum from its inception, the report shows that the number to be 
received and provided for has been constantly increasing. The original 
structure had accommodations for 64 patients. By the erection of a new 
wing in 1874 accommodations were provided for 140 ; but the fact that 
even prior to that date it was made an asylum for unconvicted criminal 
lunatics as well as insane convicts, has of course tended to cause a con- 
stant influx into it, and by subsequent acts and amendments it has been 
further made the depository, so to say, for insane cases from all the penal 
institutions of the state. The present number is 210, “of which,” in the 
language of the report, “118 are from state prisons, nine from county 
penitentiaries, nine from the state reformatory, 54 from state asylums and 
20 from the courts.” Thus the asylum population is more than 30 per 
cent, in excess of the accommodations. 
The bill reported by the commission providing for the selection of a farm 
and the erection thereon of asylum buildings for the insane criminals and 
convicts, thus naturally commends itself to all who are most familiar with 
prison and asylum workings. Dr. Carlos F. MacDonald, superintendent of 
the asylum, Dr. Stephen Smith and Comptroller Chapin, the commission- 
ers, have received gratifying endorsement of their proposition from the 
state commissioner in lunacy, the president of the state board of charities, 
the superintendent of state prisons, the State Charities Aid association, 
the Prison association, all the superintendents of the respective state 
asylums, and in fact all asylum and prison officers throughout the state at 
all conversant with the special needs of the insane. 
The commission favors the application of the present insane criminal 
asylum here to the needs of women convicts. The advantage of proper 
provision for this class is too evident to need much comment. The trans- 
fer of the criminal insane to a farm would be of especial advantage to 
them as the report plainly shows : the state needs a prison for convict 
women and would thus have it ready-made, slight alterations only being 
needed. 
The legislature will do well to give the report serious consideration. 
It is a matter in which the whole state is interested, and that equally, 
these institutions being in no sense local.