Opinion ID: 284813
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Schuster's Imprisonment

Text: 11 Schuster was sent first to Sing Sing and then transferred in 1935 to Clinton State Prison. There he made a good adjustment. He taught a cell-study course leading to a high school equivalency degree, and even received a letter from the New York State Board of Education commending him for his work. In the normal course of events, Schuster might have expected to serve his time and to be eligible for parole in 1948, when he was still not too old to build a new life. But, in 1941, life took another wrong turn for him. Schuster became convinced of corruption in the prison, particularly on the part of the official in charge of the prison education program. His expression of this belief led to his transfer to Dannemora State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Although Schuster charges that the state buried him alive in Dannemora to prevent him from bringing the corruption to light, the district court was unconvinced the transfer was corruptly motivated. The state contends that there was no corruption, that Schuster was and is a paranoid and that his insistence upon the existence of a scandal is prime evidence of his delusion. 12 Schuster entered Dannemora on September 9, 1941, at the age of 37. Now 64 years old, he still languishes there. 13 Schuster's transfer to Dannemora accorded with the provisions of § 383 of the New York Correction Law, McKinney's Consol.Laws, c. 43, as it then read. 1 That section provided for automatic transfer upon the certification of a single prison doctor that the prisoner was in his opinion insane. Schuster's commitment certificate, signed by Leaman H. Caswell, M.D., the physician at Clinton Prison, whose qualifications in psychiatry we are unable to determine from the record before us, sketchily summarized his single conversation with the prisoner, and went on to remark with breathtaking simplicity: He was circumstantial in his conversation, very talkative, complained bitterly. He was paranoid and suspicious.    This man was reported for writing letters regarding cowardly attacks made against him by the personnel and requested that something be done about it. In his letters he has shown the paranoid idea that members of the personnel are against him. Dr. Caswell attempted no further diagnosis of Schuster's condition except for the understandable observation that the prisoner was depressed. Although the certificate explicitly requested information as to whether the patient was violent, dangerous, destructive, excited,    homicidal or suicidal, Dr. Caswell did not indicate Schuster exhibited any of these symptoms.