New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-07-24

"
Reformatory, near Ellenville, to the
State Commission for Mental Defec-
tives. to be used for the detention of mentally
deficient criminals, marks an important step
in New Yorks humanitarian advancement.
New York is the first state to provide an in
stitution for it's criminals who are men,
tally defective. The need for such segregation
has long been recognized by penal authorities.
There are about $50 inmates now at Napanoch,
which institution can care for 500. The building
is new and its surroundings are attractive.
It was to have been abandoned as a reforma-
tory, but it could be put to no better use than
as an experiment station, where undoubtedly
8 great deal can be accomplished toward the
lessening Of the sort of crime that results
from the association of mental detectives with
clever criminals. Those who are released or
paroled from Napanoch will not only have the
advantage of special care and instruction
while they are in that institution, but they will
be more or less under the correctional care of
the commission afterward, if they are of the
type that reiapses frequently into crime.
The work at Napanoch is only part of what
is being done by the State Commission for
Mental Detectives which was created in 1918.
Caring for it's mental detectives is something
that society seems to have avoided most sedu-
lousy until recent years. 1t is not long since
the Village idiot" was a part and parcel
of the village itself. That unfortunate type
has figured much in English literature.
Thomas Hardy has been accused of exaggerat-
ing the woes of the village imbecile. Gold
smith, in his The Deserted Village, wrote
one Of his most frequently quoted lines in
"The loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind"
Thanks to a better understanding of psy-
chology, the old-tinle avoidance of the mental
~ deficient is thing of the past. There is no
longer disposition to shove the mentally de-
ficient aside-perhaps into institutions that are
none too we'll managed, or to let them complete
their sad deterioration in public haunts-
familiar figures in every town village and
yet not part Of its life.
The very term mental deficiency" includes
far more than in former years. To-day the
term covers the cases of the chronicaly back
ward in the public schools, as we'll as those
who are committed to institutions in advanced
stages of mental breakdown. But the public
schools can do no more than to mark the
cases of mental deficiency and provide special
instruction, which ends when the pupil is six
teen years old.
At sixteen the mentally deficient individual
is more than ever a problem. Avenues Of
crime are open to the boys, for astute crimi-
mails are always the lookout to employ weak
minded as 'stool pigeons" AS for the girls,
it is estimated that one-third of the prostitutes
come from the ranks of the feeble-rninded
The person who is only partly deficient in
mentality be taught to become useful
member of society. Many of such, who would
otherwise be charges the community, can
be made sef-supporting. During the war
period of industrial activity, when there was a
demand for all classes of labor, some defec-
tives. according to official reports, made from
$1,000 to $1,000 year. In times of unem-
ployment, however, detectives are first to feel
the pinch. At the present time they are in
greater need of public sympathy and encour-
agement than ever. Employment is hard to
get, and the cooperation of the public in this
regard is one of the great needs to-day
DR.. Pearce Bailey, whose army work in psy-
chiatry during the war commanded attention.
is chairman of the Commission for Mental De-
fectives. Associated with him are Charles r.