Evening star., 1955-02-06
Thousands Studied
By Hygiene Council
In flew York Stute

IN ,NeW IoTk St0Ce
Are former inmates of mental
institutions more likely to COM
NIT crimes than the rest of the
population?
The Mental Hygiene Council
of New York State made a study
of thousands of New York cases
at the request of the then Gov.
Thomas E. Dewey and has now
come UP with these answers:
/. The annual arrest rate for
released mental patients is four
times less than that for the gen.
eral population.
2. Patients with no record of
prior arrest have a strikingly
low rate of arrest after release.
The arrest rate was one-Seven-
teenth that of ex-patients who
had already established some
type of antisocial pattern be-
fore disqualification and less than
one-twelfth that of the general
population.
Compares FavOrably.
3. Patients with a prior record
of arrests who are released from
mental hospitals have a rate of
re-arrest which compares favor
ably with available figures for
those in the general population
with arrest records.
4. Rates of arrest tend to di-
mlnish somewhat after the first
year back in the community.
S. The more disturbed the
patient, the less chance Of him
getting into trouble after re-
lease. Patients disturbed on ad-
mission had an arrest rate after
release two and a half times
smaller than that of those who
were able to occupy themselves
Immediately after admission to
the mental hospital.
s. The same factors which
lead to crime in the general
population are true of the ex-
patients. Statistically, the group
of previously arrested patients
behaved more like a segment of
the prison population than of a
primarily psychiatric one.
Dewey Asked Study.
The study was requested by
Gov. Dewey in 1852 after a
widely -publicized murder COM
mitted by a former inmate of a
Federal hospital. Gov. Dewey
asked for a thorough review of
the release procedures in New
York mental hospitals to deter
mine If every reasonable pre-
caution was being taken to pre-
vent release of dangerous and
violent persons.
In the course of its study, the
council and its consultants Wis
tied state hospitals for the men
tally i'll, reviewed the laws and
made a statistical analysis of
what had happened over a five
year period to more than 5000
men who had been fingerprinted
on admission.
The council found that arrests
among the ex-patients were very
largely concentrated in the rela-
lively small group of persons
with previous criminal records.
The report concluded that the
antisocial behavior of this
group was correlated with fac
tors operating in the general
population and was not corre-
lated with the factors of mental
illness.
Need Trained Workers.
The council commented that
the risk in releasing patients
from mental hospitals can be re-
duced to a minimum only if
sufficient number of trained
people are made available.
"It is frequently said" the
council reported, that in re-
leases we must take calculated
risk While we cannot expect
to cure the falliblty of human
Judgment. some safeguards
should be set up to reduce the
incidence of error.
"Any answer to the problem is
not to be found in transferring
the responsibility for release
from the hospitals, where it
properly belongs, to the courts.
which have neither the trained
personnel nor the facilities re-
quired for the job"
Among the recommendations
accomplished before the report
was released was the issuance Of
a general order requiring di-
rectors of State and licensed in
stitutions to file the necessary
petition in court to start proceed
ings for the judicial certification
of a dangerous patient when the
authority to detain him was
about to expire and no proper
Maroon HuaS willing tn faka action