The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-01-06
The Asylums and Prisons.
TIE BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.

The average daily number of inmates in the
hospital for the Insane, during the last fiscal
year. was 1910. The average cost per capita
for maintenance, exclusive of clothing, is stated
to have beeRRlS4 81.
The Lumber or pupils at the Institution for the
Education of the Deaf and Dumb, at the end of
the last fiscal year, was 344. The average daily
attendance is not given in she rerorts. The cost
per capita is stated to have been $i56 80.
The number NJ pupils enrolled ut the Institute
for the Education of the Blind, during the nseal
year, was l26. The reports do not give the
average daily attendance. The cost per capita
is stated To have been S2l6.67.
The number OF pupils AT the Soldiers Orphans
Home and the Asylum for the Feeble minded
Children, institutions under one roof ana one
report to have been rs follows: Soldiers
orphans present at the end of the fiscal year,
1877. Twenty other orphans are accounted for
by the snperintendent's statement that three
have "elGped," and that seventeen have
failed to return after the summer vacation.
OF feeble-m minded children, eighty-1ne pupils are
reuarted as having been present at the END of
the fiscal year, aud fourteen as discharged or
away temporarily. The latter fourteen are said,
i'll the trustees report, not TO have returned
from the summer vacation. The cost of mainte-
nance is stated by the superintendent to have
been 1928 per cHpita. The average daily attend
ance is not specified.
The two last named institutions are NOT, with
respect to the reports required Of the trustees
and superintendent, governed by the statute re-
lating TO The other benevolent institutions. The
statute does not define with the same %particu-
larity what the re ports shalt contain. Nor does
the statute relating to any of them define the
mode OF determining the cost per capita OF main
tanning their inmates. An examination of the
repnrts of the several institutions viii, l think,
show that a uniform rule of aseertainnient does
not prevail, and that the mole of ascrriaintnent
in one or two Of them, quite Internationally, no
doubt, is untrustworthy. [ recommend that a
common requirement be adopted with respect TO
what shall he shown in the reports of the trus-
tees and superinrrndents of the several %institu-
tons, and that the mannerin which the cost per
capita of maintaining the inmates shall he as
certained shall be specifically defined by law.
Your attention is specially invited To the rec
concentrations contained in the report of the
trustees of the Hospital for the Insane, ana
which are strongly reinforced in the anle and in
structive report of the superintendent OF that
institution. The capacity of the buildings
erected by the State for the insane, spacious
and imposing as they are, is sufficient for little
more than half OF the States insane. Those who
are unable, for lack OF room in the States hos
pital, 10 he admitted as patients, sntfrr great,
ana often cruel neglect. They are confined in
uncomfortable ana sometimes shocking quar-
tiers IN poOr-houses, where they receive INSULT
cient attention, or they are a burden mon poor
kindred, who are Unable to make adequate pro-
vision for them, and to whom they are u source
OF distressing anxiety, and often of danger. Our
provision for the insane is 80 inadequate that IL
falls quite below the provision made for the same
class of sufferers made by neignboring States.
The mode suggested by the SUPERINTENDENT for
enlarging hospital attons is COM
mended TO your earnest consideration.
The provision contained in our statutes for
ascertaining the number of insane, deaf and
dumb, bind and ldiotic persons, is imperfect.y
executed. Township assessors are charged with
the duty of ascertaiBing, at the same time of
assessing personal property, the number of such
persons in their respective Townships; hut this
requirement is so frequently neglected that
these lists furnish very imperfect information.
A specific penalty should be prescribed for a
neglect to perform this important duty.
The clause in the revised code which provides
that a summons against nm insane persOn who
has no guardian, shall, where auch person Is con-
fined in IA hospital, be served upon the superin-
tendant, is regarded generally by the legal pro-
fessIon as not being applicable to Wits OF sum-
mons issued in divorce cases, and against admin
lstrators and guardians ia the course OF the act
tieinont Of estates. The consequence is that III