MENTAL DEFECTIVES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22823, 6 March 1936, Page 8

MENTAL DEFECTIVES

NEW SOUTH WALES LEGISLATION SEGREGATION AND TREATMENT (From Ouu Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, February 27. To provide for treatment of mentally defective criminals, many of whom after release from prison repeat the grave social crimes for which they were originally sentenced, a Bill will be introduced shortly by the New South Wales Minister of Justice (Mr Martin). A Sydney psychiatrist mentioned the recent tragedy 'in Dunedin, resulting in the deaths of an elderly couple and the laying of a charge of murder against their son, as a type of happening which (he New South Wales Bill aimed at preventing. . One of the State's prisons, said Mr Martin, would be converted into an institution where such men can be segregated and examined by alienists. An important feature of the legislation would be provision for detention of mentally defective prisoners after the expiration of their sentences. A 3 a safeguard against possible injustice, these prisoners would be given the right of appeal if detention were recommended. "This Bill is designed on entirely new principles," said Mr Martin. "Its application is confined to certain types within prisons, and does not affect free citizens. It represents the first constructive attempt by any State in Australia to provide means by which mentally defective criminals may regenerate themselves, instead of being let loose on the community when they arc not in a fit state to enjoy their liberty. The type of prisoner it will deal with is not a criminal in the true meaning of the word. He is an unfortunate who'does not understand' what he is doing. At present, owing to the absence of adequate leal machinery to restrain them, these men go back into social life when thensen tences arc over, and in many cases are a potential menace to the community. Many grave sex offences, and even murder, result 'from the freedom given them." , . "The problem of the mental defective is very complicated," said the In-spector-general of Mental Hospitals (T>r Wallace). " Often these people are relatively sane, and only defective on the moral side. Under the Lunacy Act we cannot keep moral defectives in prison, because, in every other respect, they may be rational and intelligent. The Bill is intended to try to segregate certain types of prisoners for the safety of the p'ublic. Its special concern is the sex criminal. When this type of man is at liberty, police and medical men know that he is a menace, but they are powerless to act until a crime, so often a grave one, is committed." "The Bill will bo a safeguard for the community," said an official of the Mental Hygiene Society, which includes among its members prominent psychiatrists, and which has been largely instrumental in suggesting and drawing up the new legislation. " At. present suspected prisoners arc examined by psychiatrists, but no legal machinery exists for dealing with them. This class of prisoner is not insane, or irrossly defective in the general sense. The provisions in the Bill to detain these men at the end of their sentences will enable the curative work of the alienists to go on, instead of exposing society to the dangers it is subjected to now. Manv of the crimes in this State are the "work of partially insane people. Cases of murder and suicide—when families are wiped out by deranged men or women —are obviously the work of insane people. Often the mental condition of those persons is apparent before the crime, whether it is murder or a sex offence that is committed. The tragedy is that unless relatives take action, and they arc usually loath to do so, the seeds of crime develop unchecked.