AN ACT in relation to Insane persons and the Illinois State Hospital for
the Insane.
SECTION 1. _Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly_: That the circuit judges of this
State are hereby vested with power to act under and execute the provisions
of the act passed on the 12th of February, 1853, entitled "An act to amend
an act entitled 'an act to establish the Illinois State Hospital for the
Insane,'" in force March 1st, 1847, in so far as those provisions confer
power upon judges of county courts; and no trial shall be had of the
question of sanity or insanity before any judge or court, without the
presence or in the absence of the person alleged to be insane. And jurors
shall be freeholders and heads of families.
SEC. 2. Whenever application is made to a circuit or county judge, under
the provisions of this act and the act to which this is an amendment, for
proceedings to inquire into and ascertain the insanity or sanity of any
person alleged to be insane, the judge shall order the clerk of the court
of which he is judge to issue a writ, requiring the person alleged to be
insane to be brought before him, at the time and place appointed for the
hearing of the matter, which writ may be directed to the sheriff or any
constable of the county, or the person having the custody or charge of the
person alleged to be insane, and shall be executed and returned, and the
person alleged to be insane brought before the said judge before any jury
is sworn to inquire into the truth of the matters alleged in the petition
on which said writ was issued.
SEC. 3. Persons with reference to whom proceedings may be instituted for
the purpose of deciding the question of sanity or insanity, shall have the
right to process for witnesses, and to have witnesses examined before the
jury; they shall also have the right to employ counsel or any friend to
appear in their behalf, so that a fair trial may be had in the premises;
and no resident of the State shall hereafter be admitted into the hospital
for the insane, except upon the order of a court or judge, or of the
production of a warrant issued according to the provisions of the act to
which this is an amendment.
SEC. 4. The accounts of said institution shall be so kept and reported to
the general assembly, as to show the kind, quantity and cost of any
articles purchased for use; and upon quarterly settlements with the
auditor, a list of the accounts paid shall be filed, and also the original
vouchers, as now required.
SEC. 5. All former laws conflicting with the provisions of this act are
hereby repealed, and this act shall take effect on its passage.
Approved February 16, 1865.
Two years practice under this law developed its inability to remove the
evils it was designed to remedy. This law, having no penalty to enforce
it, was found to be violated in many instances, as it was ascertained to
be a fact that Dr. McFarland was constantly receiving patients under the
old law of 1851, which this law had nominally repealed. Therefore, a
petition was sent to the legislature of 1867, signed by I. N. Arnold, J.
Young Scammon, and thirty-six other men of the first legal standing in
Chicago, asking for the practical repeal of the old law of 1851, by the
enforcement of the new law of 1865.
The old law of 1851 is as follows, viz.: "Married women and infants who,
in the judgment of the medical superintendent, (meaning the Superintendent
of the Illinois State Hospital for the Insane,) are evidently insane or
distracted, may be entered or detained in the hospital on the request of
the husband of the woman, or the guardian of the infant, _without_ the
evidence of insanity required in other cases."
The legislature was led to see that by the practical enforcement of this
unjust law, the personal liberty of married women and infants was still
imperiled, and also that the law of 1865 did not relieve the wronged and
injured victims of this unjust law, now imprisoned at Jacksonville Insane
Asylum. Therefore, the legislature of 1867 passed the following "Act for
the protection of Personal Liberty."
AN ACT for the Protection of Personal Liberty.
SECTION 1. _Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly_: That no superintendent, medical
director, agent or other person, having the management, supervision or
control of the Insane Hospital at Jacksonville, or of any hospital or
asylum for insane and distracted persons in this State, shall receive,
detain or keep in custody at such asylum or hospital any person who has
not been declared insane or distracted by a verdict of a jury and the
order of a court, as provided by an act of the general assembly of this
State, approved February 16, 1865.
SEC. 2. Any person having charge of, or the management or control of any
hospital for the insane, or of any asylum for the insane in this State,
who shall receive, keep or detain any person in such asylum or hospital,
against the wishes of such person, without the record or proper
certificate of the trial required by the said act of 1865, shall be deemed
guilty of a high misdemeanor, and liable to indictment, and on conviction
be fined not more than one thousand dollars, nor less than five hundred
dollars, or imprisoned not exceeding one year, nor less than three months,
or both, in the discretion of the court before which such conviction is
had: _provided_, that one half of such fine shall be paid to the
informant, and the balance shall go to the benefit of the hospital or
asylum in which said person was detained.
SEC. 3. Any person now confined in any insane hospital or asylum, and all
persons now confined in the hospital for the insane at Jacksonville, who
have not been tried and found insane or distracted by the verdict of a
jury, as provided in and contemplated by said act of the general assembly
of 1865, shall be permitted to have such trial. All such persons shall be
informed by the trustees of said hospital or asylum, in their discretion,
of the provisions of this act and of the said act of 1865, and on their
request, such persons shall be entitled to such trial within a reasonable
time thereafter: _provided_, that such trial may be had in the county
where such person is confined or detained, unless such person, his or her
friends, shall, within thirty days after any such person may demand a
trial under the provisions of said act of 1865, provide for the
transportation of such person to, and demand trial in the county where
such insane person resided previous to said detention, in which case such
trial shall take place in said last mentioned county.
SEC. 4. All persons confined as aforesaid, if not found insane or
distracted by a trial and the verdict of a jury as above, and in the said
act of 1865 provided, within two months after the passage of this act,
shall be set at liberty and discharged.
SEC. 5. It shall be the duty of the State's attorneys for the several
counties to prosecute any suit arising under the provisions of this act.
SEC. 6. This act shall be deemed a public act, and take effect and be in
force from and after its passage.
Approved March 5th, 1867.
The public will see that, under the humane provisions of this act, all the
inmates of every insane asylum in the State of Illinois, whether public or
private, who have been incarcerated without the verdict of a jury that
they are insane, are now entitled to a jury trial, and unless this trial
is granted them within sixty days from the 5th of March, 1867, they are
discharged, and can never be incarcerated again without the verdict of a
jury that they are insane. No person can be detained there after sixty
days, who has not been declared insane by a jury.
It is thus that the barbarities of the law of 1851 are wiped out by this
act of legislative justice. Now, all married women and infants who have
been imprisoned "without evidence of insanity," as this unjust law allows,
and who are still living victims of this cruel law, will now be liberated
from their false imprisonment, unless they have become insane by the
inhumanity of their confinement. And if it is found by the testimony that
they were sane when they were imprisoned, and that they have become insane
by being kept there, is it humane to perpetuate the cause of their
insanity, under the pretext that their cure demands it? Or, in other
words, is that kind of treatment which caused their insanity the best
adapted to cure their insanity?
This great question, who shall be retained as fit subjects for the insane
asylum, is now to depend, in all cases, upon the decision of a jury; and
each case must be legally investigated, as the law of 1865 directs.
ANOTHER ACT OF LEGISLATIVE JUSTICE--APPOINTMENT OF AN INVESTIGATING
COMMITTEE.
_Resolved, the Senate concurring_, That a joint committee of three from
this House and two from the Senate be appointed to visit the hospital for
the insane, after the adjournment, of the legislature, at such times as
they may deem necessary, with power to send for persons and papers, and to
examine witnesses on oath; that said committee be instructed thoroughly to
examine and inquire into the financial and sanitary management of said
institution; to ascertain whether any of the inmates are improperly
detained in the hospital, or unjustly placed there, and whether the
inmates are humanely and kindly treated, and to confer with the trustees
of said hospital in regard to the speedy correction of any abuses found to
exist, and to report to the Governor, from time to time, at their
discretion.
_And be it further resolved_, That said committee be instructed to examine
the financial and general management of the other State institutions.
Adopted by the House of Representatives,
F. CORWIN, _Speaker_.
Concurred in by the Senate,
WM. BROSS, _Speaker_.
The following gentlemen compose the committee: Hon. E. Baldwin, Farm
Ridge, LaSalle county; Hon. T. B. Wakeman, Howard, McHenry county; Hon.
John B. Ricks, Taylorville, Christian county, on the part of the House of
Representatives. Hon. Allen C. Fuller, Belvidere, Boone county; Hon. A. J.
Hunter, Paris, Edgar county, on the part of the Senate.
Transcriber's Notes:
Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
Punctuation has been corrected without note.
The following misprints have been corrected:
"dont" corrected to "don't" (page 6 [twice])
"misued" corrected to "misused" (page 16)
"ful" corrected to "full" (page 31)
"other'" corrected to "other's" (page 34)
"o" corrected to "to" (page 48)
"Massachusets" corrected to "Massachusetts" (page 52)
"one s" corrected to "one's" (page 66)
"pedition" corrected to "perdition" (page 70)
"arduour" corrected to "arduous" (page 116)
"ander" corrected to "under" (page 130)
"dont" corrected to "don't" (page 131)
"Kankahee" corrected to "Kankakee" (page 145)
"Satte" corrected to "State" (page 155)
Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in spelling and
hyphenation have been retained from the original.