The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-02-22

THE CRIMINAL INSANE.

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THE CRIMINAL INSANE.
Our State charities arc really becom-
| ing charitable and our state correction
| is becoming truly corrective. The old
days OF punishment have passed. and
with them the old systems OF regard
| ing every deficient as a criminal, every
felon as a permanent enemy of society
We no longer huddle all these classes
| in the jails, the asylums or tho peni-
Tertiary. We adjust their punishment
or their confinement to their needs
l1ncorriEible boys go to the rcformatory
weakened criminals to the State Farm,
young negroes to special school,
Within a year VIC shall, in all proba-
billty, be placing unfortunate girls in a
suitable institution, and VIC shall he
segregating our cpllcptics in Il colony
OF their own. We shall see our State
Board OF Charities and Correction
working on broader basis for greater
ends.
All OF this spells progress and hui
L
| mainly. But there are three other
measures now before the House of
delegates, conceived IN the same broad
! spirit and aimed at the same high goal.
These are Senator Lassiter's bills for
. the care OF the criminal insane, the
terms of which need only be under
stood TO insure their passage.
1 No more battling class exists than
the criminal insane. They cannot be
treated as criminals. They cannot be
treated as harmless lunatics. They
cannot DO held responsible for crimes
committed under mental dclusion.
They cannot be turned back on society
| as safe and sane citizens. If they re-
cover, they are openSo punishment. II
they arc permanently insane, they
should be protected and treated. All
OF this would be perplcSing enough in
any case. but the new and wide pop
ularity of criminal insanity as de-
Tense for murder complexities the stu
have supplanted the judge by the
psychiatrist and have practically put
paid experts in the place Of juries,
strict laws must be passed that will
not permit temporary confinement in an
| insane asylum as suitable and sufficient
punishment for crime. The State must
have some recourse for the protection
of the community against those hypo-
thetically insane persons who fully de-
! serve the penalty for their misdeeds.
Senator Lassiter's bills, in our judg-
ment, meet every demand of these trou-
blesome conditions. BY his plan the
criminal insane are to be confined in
separate ward at Petersburg or at
Marion. They are not to mingle with
the harmless insane; they are not to
| be treated as criminals. If man de-
velops insanity during trial. and re-
covers afterwards, he is to be returned
TO the court. If he becomes mad while
in prison. he is to be sent to the proper
asylum. and is to be returned to prison
should he regain his sanity, with de-
duction for the time spent in the asy-
lum. Under no circumstances is a
criminal suffering from insanity to be
loosed on society unless competent
state officials are convinced that he
can at no time be in any way menace
to the State.
All this, we repeat, is admirable. 1t
closes a dangerous loophole in the
law, and by the same provisions pro-
tects the man whom disease. and not q
natural tendency to crime, incites to
wrongdoing.
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