The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-01-27
Serious Condition Of Affairs
Shown by Report Of
Morris Plains Asylum.
WORK HAMpERED BY LACK OF ROOM
Erection of a Separate Institution
for the Criminal Insane
Recommended.

POtI VI III bOdIQ VI Iidlid5Si5
Jersey State Hospital at Morris Plains
was submitted to the Legislature this
week. The report shows that the hos
pital year closed with LII patients. or
which 593 were males and 584 females. This
was 9S more than were in the hospital at
the close of the previous year. OF these
patients, III are supported by guardians,
relatives or friends; LOG are supported by
the State and are known as State indi-
gents md convicts. and $50 are county
patients, supported by the respective coun-
ties of which they are residents and from
which they were committed by the
courts.
The statistical $ortion of the report
shows that the decade of life which fur-
nished the greatest number of patients
was between the fiftieth and sixtieth
years. Out of 10 patients discharged as
cured, so were between the ages of 20 and
40, giving proof that youth and early adult
life are strong factors in the readjustment
or restoration of a deranged mind Those
in advanced age gave the greatest num-
Der of admissions and yielded the fewest
recoveries.
of the 294 admissions, III were born III
New Jersey, 70 were born in other parts
of the United States, and 107 were of for
eign birth; 2S6 were residents of New Jer-
sey and s were non-residents. The nom
residents were private patients and per-
sons committed as State indigents under a
recent law, for whom the courts were I'M
able to fix a legal settlement in the State.
In previous years the number of mar
ried persons admitted was much in ex-
cess of the unmarried, but in the year
just closed the difference is small, there
being but four more married than unmar-
ried. The cares and complications Incl
dent to married life seem not to have eX-
erted a marked influence in the causation.
The death rate for the year, computed
upon the whole number under treatment,
is Sc per cent. The number of recoveries
during the year was 25 per cent. of the
number admitted.
Only one patient escaped during the
year who was not returned to the hospi-
tai.
The report of the Medical Director gives
a graphic description of the over-crowded
condition of the hospital, and strongly
urges that its accommodations be in
creased in the near future. AS it is, the
work is greatly hampered by the lack of
room. The report says
Too much stress cannot be laid upon
the dangers and inconvenience incident
to the crowding of nearly 1,200 patients
into a hospital with only a normal
capacity of 500. This serious problem
has been presented from year to year in
former reports, but no actual relief has
as yet been given. The gravity of the
situation is too evident to call for
elaborate consideration in this report
Tho hocnitoI uaar closed with Ri n1fipntS
in excess of its normal capacity. The dis
continuation of the work on the new
hospital building was to the resident
officers more than a simple ~disappoint-
ment. 1t meant that we must continue
to herd together in dormitories and
sleeping rooms a number of patients re-
CARELESS of sanitary laws, thus leopard
ing the health and comfort of all con-
cerned; it meant the conversion of a
hospital intended for the scientific class
i~fication and treatment of its patients
into a place offering hardly more than
c%ustodial accommodation. 1t meant
that it would be impossible to entirely
separate the violent and vicious from
those affiliated with a milder form of
trouble thus unavoidably j~eoparding
life in a manner more apparent than the
violation of sanitary laws.
This ignoring all principles of classif-
cation and placing dangerous patients
with innocent and inoffenSive ones, nee
essarily keeps the officers of the hospital
in constant apprehension and fear that
it's records will be furnished with a hom-
icide. While the year closed has not
such a blot upon its records, his lack of
classification and the unavoidable crowd
ing together has resulted in numerous
bruises, and on more than one occasion
the breaking of bones.
A fire in an institution is accessibility
that is always borne in mind and so far
as possible guarded against. Under the
most favorable conditions, in the event
of such a calamity, it is an extremely
n ifiR11lt. ia Sk tO remove nafiQntC Ga Tp1V
The gravity of the situation can. be read
lily appreciated. We are confronted with
wards, dormitories and rooms w
with patients regardless of classification.
Add to these alarming conditions low
cots on the main floors of the wards,
acting as stumbling blocks and barriers
to rapid egress, and a possibility is pre-
scented the reality of which we may be
forced to face at n time.
TIL placing of a large number of
patients upon the floors in the corridors
report and was exhibited to a commit
tic will remain there until removed by
the State.
The Board calls attention to the evils
of combining epileptics with the other
insane patients. One in such a hospi-
tai, it may be safely said that the epilep-
tic will remain there until removey by
death.
managers object to having in the hos
pital are the criminals. 1t recommends
the erection of a hospital for insane con-
victs above the city. On the subject it
says
The other class consists of criminals
and convicts. The c~onvicts consist of
those who were living a criminal life,
who were not insane when they com
mitted the deeds which secured their in
generation, but who are said to have
become so while in the State Prison.
These are transferred from the State
Prison to the State Hospitals, and thus
the innocent unfortunate victims of in
sanity are compelled to associate with
abandoned criminals who bring to the in
stitution all their original instincts and
institution they have ample opportunity
to make trouble. During the past year
necessity has compelled the construction
of three strong rooms for the most tur-
bulent and troublesome male convicts.
But as it is impossible to put more than
one of these in a room, only three can
be taken care of. The Medical Director
has apple for the construction of sew
era1 more and demonstrated the necessity
for them; but to construct a sufficient
number of rooms to prevent this class
of patients from escaping would be to
give a large part of the house the APP
pearance of a prison, and even then the
other patients would not be protected
from the communicating influence of as
sociating with them.
Other States have found it necessary
to build Institutions for the convict in
sane. The erection of such a one at
Trenton would relieve the pressure on
both the State Prison and the State Hos
pitfalls, and If it were thought best to
place it on the grounds of the State Hos
pital at Trenton, it could be erected and
managed at a very limited expense.
The present law regulating the cOmmit-
ment of persons to Institutions for the
insane is so lax in its provisions that
II affords an onnortlnity for seriouS