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Unsoundness of Mind in Relation to Criminal Acts
Unsoundness of Mind in Relation to Criminal Acts Author:John C. Bucknill Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: accused is proved to have labored under imbecility, or any kind or degree of mental unsoundness. The judges do possess such discretionary power in awarding punis... more »hment for other crimes ; thus, for manslaughter, they sentence one criminal to one month's imprisonment, and another to transportation for life, according to the character of the offence, or the existence or not of extenuating circumstances. We cannot here enlarge upon the kind of treatment which would be r11QT suited to the correction of criminals, whose punishment has been L J modified in consequence of partial unsoundness of mind. A State Asylum, under skilful and enlightened government, like the one at Dundrum, would appear essential to such an end. In England, men who escape the punishment of heinous ofiences on the plea of insanity are, for the most part, consigned to the criminal ward of Bethlem; a place which has been justly referred to, as a receptacle of insane criminals. It is not a modern prison, for there is no corrective discipline; it is not an hospital, for suitable treatment is impossible ; it is not an asylum for the relief and protection of the unfortunate, for it is one of the most gloomy abodes to be found in the metropolis. It is simply a receptacle; into which the waifs of criminal law are swept, out of sight and out of mind. The overflow of its numbers is farmed to the proprietor of a private asylum at Fisherton; from whose custody five of these criminal lunatics, having combined against their keepers, recently escaped in a body. It is said that Government will permit no alteration in the criminal ward at Bethlem. We trust this refusal arises from a conviction that r19fn e whole treatment of criminal lunatics in England requires L -I complete revision, and that no modification of existing a...« less