SANE IN ASYLUMS

Evening Star, Issue 19762, 12 January 1928, Page 4

SANE IN ASYLUMS

DEFECTS IN LAW. (5 Medical specialists in mental diseases in Britain are greatly perturbed by. the disclosures in the 'Daily Mail' concerning Mr Isaac Mitehani, a forty-three-year-old fanner, who was sentenced by Mr Justice Swift, at Bedford Assizes, to two months' imprisonment for assaulting a doctor at the Three Counties Mental Hospital, Arlesey, Bedfordshire, while an inmate of that institution.

It was stated at the trial that Mr Mitcham, who had been confined as a lunatic for nearly two years, was a sane man and had struck the doctor to draw public attention to his case. Mr Justice Swift ruled that at law the man, although he had been an inmate of the asylum up to the tilde- of Jus arrest, was regarded as a sane man and was dealt with accordingly. One of the most remarkable features disclosed in evidence was that all the time ho was in the asylum Mr Mitcham had asserted that he was sane. After the assault ho was stated by the prison medical authorities to be sane. Leading specialists with wide experience of lunacy cases declare that the case, brings to light serious defects in the lunacy daws. One authority said that Mr Mitcham’s case was proof of the urgent need for genuine reform of the lunacy laws and administration. He added:—The British public have always regarded the Board of Control as guardians of unfortunate persons who are of unsound mind, and it seems incredible that a man—now legally admitted to be sane—could have been detained in an asylum without being able to establish his sanity except by the way he did. ‘1 Those of ns who know the methods of the Board of Control and their visitors arc not surprised, for it hy no means infrequently happens that, as in the case of Mr Mitcham, efforts on the part of the person regarded ns insane to obtain assistance from the board are futile. In point of fact, the mere claim of an unfortunate individual who finds himself wrongly placed in an asylum to bo sane is regarded as evidence of insanity. The same attitude from the authorities is mot with hy relatives and friends who attempt to secure his release. The great difficulty is to get into direct communication with the Board of Control, as all applications of this sort go to the medical superintendent. “ A good illustration of the difficulties is provided by one of my own cases. The wife of an inmate of an institution living abroad, dissatisfied with the treatment her husband was receiving, came to this country to secure his release. She found that his elder brother, who had the administration of their father’s estate, had had him certified and placed in an asylum. She was satisfied that he was sane, or at least quite harmless, and determined to take him back with her. Every conceivable obstacle was placed in her way, and she had to spend almost her last farthing before she could obtain his freedom. 1 have no hesitation in saying that there are many men and sane, who are being detained in asylums. The plain fact is that once a person is caught in the web of the lunacy system, no matter how sane he or she may be, it is extraordinarily difficult to establish sanity.”