Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-11-24
EVIL OF OyERCR0MDING.
What the Superintendent of the Stockton
Insane Asylum SAYS About 1t.

What the Superintendent of the Stockton
Insane Asylum Says About 1t.
The Superintendent of the Stockton In
sane Asylum in his biennial report says:
The number of patients in the Stockton
Asylum at the close of the fiscal year was
/ 647- At present writing September 18th
il is SO. The asylum will properly ac.
commodate i,150-S00 males and $50 fe.
Misunderstanding on basis of fifty sur
face feet to each inmate. So largely has it
ouigrown its capacity, that the expected
removal of $50 patients to Agnew Asylum
in December will relieve US only to a
scarcely sppreciable extent.
In the task of taking care of 500 more
patients than the asylum is designed to
hold. the endeavor has been to place the
burden where it would be the least felt.
While the wards contsining the chronic
and harmless patients have felt the brunt
of the pressure, it has been found impossi
BILE TO avoid hampering by surplusage to
some extent the section devoted to acute
and durable cases. Happily our climate is
such that there is hardly day when the
most crowded wards cannot be almost en-
tirely emptied of their occupants and
thrown open for publication; fortunate
circumstance when, besides the bedrooms
and dormitories, the floors of halls, corri-
doris, and doorways are nightly used as
sleeping apartments.
To overcrowd the insane is TO impair tie
usefulness of the asylum and subvert good
management. 1t interferes with the proper
moral and hygienic treatment of the patti
ents and lessons their chance of restora-
ton. Il reacts upon their physical health,
as well as upon their mental progress. No
class of people are more readily influenced
bv their surroundings; close contact makes
them uneasy and irritable, and is provoca-
tive of quarreling.
The magnitude this evil is assuming, and
the seeming remoteness and inadequacy of
the measures hitherto taken for its redress,
have given me serious thought, not I'M
mixed with sense of encouragement.
The failure of this great State to fulfill its
duty toward its hapless wards the insane,
cannot be viewed without concern. l trust
that our lawmakers will realize how nearly
this matter touches the honor and good
name of the State, and will take vigorous
steps that such a state of things be not per-
mitted to exist.
THE PROSPECTS OF RELIEF.
To provide for the accommodating increase
is the problem before the people of this
State. The Hospital for Chronic Insane at
Agnew is expected to receive patients in
December to the number of $50, $50 from
each State asylum. A second block OF
wards is now in progress of construction
there, which will be ready for occupancy
in year or two, and which will accommo-
date $40 patients or 100 from each asylum.
The removal, therefore, of $50 patients
this year. and 40 in 1890, or 800 in all, is
the utmost in the way of relief that
this asylum can look for, under present
arrangements. How far will this go
toward reducing our numbers TO the proper
limit? At the rate this asylum has been
increasing in the last four years, with
1915 in September, 1888, we should have
1850 in September, 1890. Deducting 800
which is all Agnew can be expected to re-
lieve us of by that time, there will still be
1850 inmates here two years hence, or 400
more than the institution has room for.
This fact must be held prominently in
view that one hundred are added yearly
10 the number of insane the State has per-
manentiy to take care of. Our insane pop
ulation being 3,I15 this year, it will be 3.215
next wear and 3.315 the year after. This
vast aggregate is nov GRO y ded into two asy.
Inns. when it ought to be contained in al
least four.
No asylum should contain more than zoe
natients. 10 obtain the hest results Of what
nav be called a thoroughly % terasl ad-
minis,ratior. With a nualuer 20 greater