J. C. CARSON M.D., SUPERINTENDENT SYRACUSE STATE INSTITUTION FOR FEEBLE-MINDED CHILDREN Governors messages. In relation to the epileptic and feebleminded it is noteworthy that the governors of no less than 11 states. made mention of one or the other of these classes in their messages for 1905. In three of the states, Connecticut, Indiana and Michigan, the recommendations were in the way of provision for epileptics on the colony plan, the Governor of Michigan especially recommending it along the line adopted by the state of New York at the Craig Colony. In the other eight states, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York and Wisconsin, references to the feeble-minded were made and in each instance in the nature of recommendations either for state provision where none exists or for increasing the accommodations of already existing institutions. In Illinois, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Nebraska a recommendation was made especially to provide for an additional number of feeble-minded girls or women of the childbearing age. Legislation. Connecticut. The legislation in this state was in the form of a resolution ('05 ch.450) authorizing the appointment by the Governor of three persons to investigate methods for the care and treatment of epileptics and report to the Legislature in 1907. Michigan. A new section is added to chapter 209 of the laws of 1903 which requires that in making application for admission to the State Institution for Feeble-minded and Epileptic the parents or guardians of applicants shall waive all right thereafter of removing them. This is important legislation. It is no doubt intended to give the management control and custody of inmates whose parents or guardians are unfit persons. Such legislation, however, appears to be a surrender of the future right of a parent over the custody of his child and this many parents would never willingly yield. For the permanent custody of a few individual cases the law of course would for certain reasons prove very desirable. It is likely, however, a knowledge of the existence of such a law would deter many parents from ever permitting the admission of their children to the institution. Indiana. Chapter 159 of the laws of 1905 provides for the establishment of a village for the scientific education, treatment, 'See also Governors Messages and Index of Legislation, 2210. employment and custody of epileptics, to be known as "The Indiana Village for Epileptics." The Governor is authorized to appoint three commissioners to decide upon a location for the village and purchase the necessary land. Not less than 1000 acres of land shall be purchased, for which and for the erection and equipment of the necessary buildings $150,000 is appropriated. Epileptics at present in the poorhouses, jails and other county institutions shall be the first ones admitted to the village when accommodations are ready. For the maintenance of the institution a per capita allowance of $200 a year is provided. An allotment based on population is made of the number of inmates to be received from each county. The commitment of epileptic persons to the village is also provided for, the form not materially differing from that usually followed in other states, namely an application to a judge of a court of record by a reputable citizen, followed by the examination of the patient by two experienced physicians and their certification of the existence of epilepsy. New York. Chapter 458 of the laws of 1905, amending '96 ch.546, gives the managers upon the death of any patient at the Craig Colony for Epileptics authority to perform an autopsy, under certain conditions. The purpose of the amendment is to extend scientific pathological investigations in the study of epilepsy and is therefore to be commended. New Hampshire. Previous legislation in this state had limited the detention of inmates at the State Institution for Feeble-minded to the age of 21. An amendment ('05 ch.23) extends the limit indefinitely for feeble-minded girls. Its purpose, a most laudable one, is the retention of feeble-minded women under custody during the child-bearing period. Massachusetts. An act ('05 ch.282) provides for the support of certain feeble-minded persons having residence in towns of less than $500,000 assessed valuation. The purpose of the act is to relieve the small towns of the state from the expense of maintaining their feeble-minded at the state institution by placing their support upon the state at large. It seems as if a better and more equitable law would be one making state charges of all feeble-minded persons received at the institution. Oregon. The State Board of Public Building Commissioners is authorized ('05 ch.181) to make investigations in relation to the probable cost of buildings for the care of all feeble-minded and epileptic children of the state, and to visit or send representatives to other states for the purpose of examining institutions where the feeble-minded or epileptic are being maintained. The Commissioners are required to report upon the kind and character of buildings best suited to the purpose and they may select and purchase the necessary grounds. Rhode Island. A resolution was passed authorizing the appointment of a joint special committee of the Senate and Assembly on the subject of providing a state school for feeble-minded children. In Rhode Island no institution for the feeble-minded exists and the resolution is presumably the first legislative effort towards the establishment of an institution of some kind in the state for the care and training of the feeble-minded. Washington. An act was passed ('05 ch.70) providing for the care of defective and feeble-minded youth and establishing an institution therefor. Prior to this law a few of the feeble-minded in the state had been provided for in a department of the School for the Blind at Vancouver. The act passed authorizes the transfer of the feeble-minded in the department at Vancouver to buildings in a new location less than 2 miles distant from the Eastern Washington Hospital for the Insane, and places their supervision under the superintendent of that hospital. It is probable that the arrangement of caring and providing for the feeble-minded in connection with the blind proved unsatisfactory. The law now shifts the arrangement over to a management in connection with a still different class, the insane. Our prediction is that this plan will also prove unsatisfactory and in the end will be found to be a mistake. In providing for two different classes under one management it is difficult to give each class the separate and distinctive attention required. The one is apt to predominate or else intermingle too much with the other. The insane require care and treatment; the feeble-minded care and training. As we view it, the only gain made by the law is a more extended accommodation for the feeble-minded and a rather more distinctive character given to their care in the establishment of a separate institution. New York State Education Department New York State Library REVIEW OF LEGISLATION 1905 LEGISLATION BULLETIN 29g Crimes and Offenses Samuel J. Barrows CRIMES AND OFFENSES' SAMUEL J. BARROWS, UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER, INTERNATIONAL PRISON COMMISSION. With the country divided into 45 separate political compartments it is not surprising that legislation every year should be as variegated as a patchwork quilt. Countries like England, France, Germany and Italy, in which there is a uniform penal code, look with surprise at the want of uniformity and indeed the positive contradiction in penal laws in the United States, growing out of our system of local government. The system becomes a serious embarrassment from time to time in our international relations when a foreign country finds that an offense committed in any one of the states against a foreign subject is not punishable by the federal government, which has no jurisdiction over the matter. Foreign citizens eventually learn that the degrees of privilege they enjoy and the amount of obligation they incur depend very much upon what part of the country they are living in. But foreigners are not alone in recognizing the anomalies which come from want of uniformity. From time to time the confusion and contradiction of laws and the want of a more homogeneous ethical standard so far as it may be expressed in law is recognized and felt by students of social and political conditions. The attempt to secure uniformity in state legislation by the appointment of boards of commissioners from the several states has not been very successful, whether in relation to civil or criminal law. What is attained in the way of uniformity is more likely to be secured through the active propaganda of various national associations organized to promote definite commercial, professional, patriotic, political or social development. 'See also Governors Messages and Index of Legislation, 234, 870. |