5 août 1851 - ACT for making provision for the confinement and maintenance of Lunatics and other persons of unsound mind charged with or convicted of offences

Description:

The legal origin of the criminal stream of confinement.

«WHEREAS it is expedient that provision should be made for the confinement and maintenance of Lunatics and other persons of unsound mind, charged with or convicted of offences; or whom, from the character of their malady, it may be dangerous to permit to go abroad:
«Section I: That in all cases where it shall be given in evidence upon the trial of any person charged with any offence, whether the same be treason, felony or misdemeanour, that such person was insane at the time of the commission of such offence, and such person shall be acquitted, the Jury shall be required to find specially whether such person was insane at the time of the commission of such offence, and to declare whether such person was acquitted by them on account of such insanity; and if they shall find that such person was insane at the time of committing such offence, the Court […], shall order such person to be kept in strict custody in such places and in such manner as to the Court shall seem fit; until Her Majesty’s pleasure shall be known»
«Section III: And, for the better prevention of crimes being committed by ‘persons insane’, be it enacted, That if any person shall be discovered and apprehended under circumstances that denote a derangement of mind and a purpose of committing some crime, […] any of Her Majesty’s Justices of the Peace before whom such person may be brought, shall think fit to issue a warrant for committing him or her as a dangerous person suspected to be insane, such cause of commitment being plainly expressed in the warrant»
«Section IV: And be it enacted, That if any person, while imprisoned in any prison, or other place of confinement, […] appear to be insane, it shall be lawful for any two Justices of the Peace […] to inquire, with the aid of two Physicians or Surgeons, as to the insanity of such person; and if it shall be duly certified by such Justices and such Physicians or Surgeons that such person is insane, it shall be lawful for the Governor of this Province, upon receipt of such certificate through the Provincial Secretary, to direct by warrant […] that such person shall be removed to such public Lunatic Asylum, or other proper receptacle for insane persons, […] and every person so removed under this Act […] shall remain under confinement in such Asylum or other proper receptacle, […] until it shall be duly certified to the Governor of this Province through the -Provincial Secretary, by two Physicians or Surgeons, that such person has become of sound mind, […] whereupon the Governor of this Province is hereby authorized, […] to issue a warrant […] to the keeper other person having the care of any such public Asylum […] directing that such person shall be removed back from thence to the Prison […] or if the period of imprisonment or custody of such person shall have expired, that he or she shall be discharged»
«Section V: And whereas there are sometimes persons who by lunacy or otherwise are furiously mad, or so disordered in their sense as to endanger their own persons or property, or the persons or property of others if permitted to go at large, be it therefore enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for any two or more Justices of the Peace, residing in the City, Town, Village, Township, Parish or place where such Lunatic or mad person shall be found, […] by warrant under their hands and seals, directed to the Constables of any such City […] to cause such person to be apprehended and kept safely locked up in some secure place within the District or County; if the last legal settlement of such person shall […] not be there, then such person shall be sent to the place of his or her last legal settlement, and shall be locked up by warrant of two justices, […] and the reasonable charges of removing, and of keeping, maintaining and curing such person during such restraint, (which shall be for and during such time only as such lunacy or madness shall continue) shall be satisfied and paid, by order of two or more Justices of the Peace, directing the Treasurer of the Municipal corporation of the City, Town […] or place where any goods, chattels, lands, or tenements of such person shall be, to seize and see so much of the goods and chattels, or receive so much of the annual rents of the lands and tenements as is necessary to pay the same; […] but if such person hath not an estate to pay and satisfy the same, […] then such charges shall be satisfied and paid by the City, […] to which such person belongs»
«Section VIII: That if any person having been duly convicted of any offence, who after such conviction, and during his or her imprisonment, or continuance in the Provincial Penitentiary, or in any gaol, prison, or house of correction, under sentence of transportation or imprisonment, shall become insane, and it shall be duly certified by two Physicians or Surgeons, that such person is insane, it shall be lawful for the Governor of this Province to direct by warrant under his hand and privy seal, that such person as aforesaid shall be removed to such public Lunatic Asylum or other receptacle for insane persons, […] and every such person so removed as aforesaid, shall remain under confinement in such public Lunatic Asylum or other proper receptacle as aforesaid, or in any other public Lunatic Asylum or other proper receptacle to which such person may be removed by any like order, until it shall be duly certified to the Governor of this Province, by two Physicians or Surgeons, that such person has become of sound mind; whereupon the Governor of this Province is hereby authorised, if such person shall still remain subject to imprisonment, or to be continued in custody, to issue his warrant to the keeper or other per. son having the care of any such public Lunatic Asylum, or other proper receptacle as aforesaid, directing that such person shall be removed back from such Lunatic Asylum or other proper receptacle, to the Provincial penitentiary, or to the gaol, prison, or house of correction, from whence the said person or persons shall have been taken for the purposes of bing confined in such Lunatic Asylum or other proper receptacle as aforesaid during the time of their being insane; or if the period of imprisonment or custody of such person had expired, that such person shall be discharged»

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