Page images
PDF
EPUB

66

Self-innocence as to Crime.-A larger number of prisoners than would be supposed declare that they are innocent of the crime with which they have been charged, and for which they have been sentenced. Some, possibly, have grounds for the assertion: they may have been altogether innocent, as cases do occur now and again in which a free pardon is granted to convicts in consequence of after-proof, or they may not have been guilty to the full of the charge which had been proven against them. In some cases, indeed, the memory may fail to recall the commission of a crime, as when the evil was done during intoxication. But usually there is a colouring or distortion of facts and circumstances in the imagination of the prisoner. The first approach to the line of thought which ends in assertions of this sort appears to lie in an extenuation (in their own minds) of their crime. To this are added the plausible arguments and proofs of innocence brought forward by the Counsel for the defence." The prisoners worry themselves about being convicted on such evidence (possibly circumstantial) as was brought against them; they believe they had no right to be convicted on it; hence that their conviction was unwarranted and unjustifiable; and, if so, that they are suffering innocently. In such a groove as this are their thoughts liable to run, and as these ideas continue onesided and unanswered the conclusions reached become more or less established. In not a few cases where the mind becomes disturbed does this innocence of theirs become the "burden of their lay," and as a result one of two conditions is apt to follow: the prisoner either becomes moping and depressed because he has been unjustly dealt with, or else he becomes defiant and insubordinate, as having done nothing for which he should be treated as a prisoner, and threatens to force his way out even with violence. When speaking of prison delusions we saw how one set of them arose out of ideas as to unjust conviction and sentence. Selfinnocence as to crime is usually nothing more than the ruling idea by which the mental depression is brought about or characterised; but from the frequency of its occurrence it may fairly be claimed as a subsidiary form of melancholy in connection with morbid states of mind occurring among prisoners. The condition is more apt to appear among those who have been unused to a criminal life.

As bearing upon some of the points we have been considering, the two following extracts from statements made by prisoners will serve to illustrate the difficulty there is in arriving at any exact conclusion as to the state of mind in

GENTLEMEN,-I have Been in this prison, portsmouth, 13 months, and I have been kept in torture and missery ever since I have been in The prison by having drugs put into rations to keep me in torture to try to make me commit myself, so that They get me flogged; because they could not do that they have burnt my body so bad that I cannot abair my clothes to touch my flesh; they dried all the nature out of my flesh I cannot bend myself about my body; smarts most Dreadful; they have only commenced that since the beging of last winter; they have baked me special bread with salt ptre in it; they give me that bread every 3 or 4 days; when I take it down to the principal (warder) they send me to the seperate cells, and report me for refusins labour, &c., &c.

Home-Sickness among prisoners shows itself mainly in two forms, viz., where the depression is connected with an intense anxiety and longing to get back to his home and friends, and also where wretchedness comes in a heavy cloud over the mind in consequence of desolateness, which he feels he has brought about at home. Thus the prisoner's homesickness may or may not be selfish: he may long for a return to the enjoyment of home comforts or pleasures, or he may regret with bitterness the home-misery he has brought upon others. Of this unselfish form was the case of J. T., whose sentence to death had been reprieved. He felt for a time in an inconsolable condition. He had murdered one of his children, and all his thoughts were taken up about his wife and the rest of his family being left without anyone to look after them. He often cried and blamed himself for having caused such misery. At other times he would say that his sentence was too severe, and even that he never committed the crime. There are of course frequent cases where thoughts of home and friends occupy largely the prisoner's mind, but where they do not exert any unfavourable influence. Here they seem rather to act as a healthy stimulus to good behaviour and industry in order that by earning full privileges and proportionate remission of sentence, an earlier return home is gained. But on the other hand, these and kindred subjects of thought no doubt give rise to some of those morbid ideas which I have already pointed out when speaking of the special delusions of prisoners. The prisoner asserts, for instance, that some of his friends or relatives have come to visit him, and that they are walking outside the prison waiting to be admitted. He hears them continually speaking to him, and he pleads that he may be allowed to see them. Thus the prevailing idea in ordinary cases of melancholy may connect itself with such thoughts.

Self-innocence as to Crime.-A larger number of prisoners than would be supposed declare that they are innocent of the crime with which they have been charged, and for which they have been sentenced. Some, possibly, have grounds for the assertion: they may have been altogether innocent, as cases do occur now and again in which a free pardon is granted to convicts in consequence of after-proof, or they may not have been guilty to the full of the charge which had been proven against them. In some cases, indeed, the memory may fail to recall the commission of a crime, as when the evil was done during intoxication. But usually there is a colouring or distortion of facts and circumstances in the imagination of the prisoner. The first approach to the line of thought which ends in assertions of this sort appears to lie in an extenuation (in their own minds) of their crime. To this are added the plausible arguments and proofs of innocence brought forward by the "Counsel for the defence." The prisoners worry themselves about being convicted on such evidence (possibly circumstantial) as was brought against them; they believe they had no right to be convicted on it; hence that their conviction was unwarranted and unjustifiable; and, if so, that they are suffering innocently. In such a groove as this are their thoughts liable to run, and as these ideas continue onesided and unanswered the conclusions reached become more or less established. In not a few cases where the mind becomes disturbed does this innocence of theirs become the "burden of their lay," and as a result one of two conditions is apt to follow: the prisoner either becomes moping and depressed because he has been unjustly dealt with, or else he becomes defiant and insubordinate, as having done nothing for which he should be treated as a prisoner, and threatens to force his way out even with violence. When speaking of prison delusions we saw how one set of them arose out of ideas as to unjust conviction and sentence. Selfinnocence as to crime is usually nothing more than the ruling idea by which the mental depression is brought about or characterised; but from the frequency of its occurrence it may fairly be claimed as a subsidiary form of melancholy in connection with morbid states of mind occurring among prisoners. The condition is more apt to appear among those who have been unused to a criminal life.

As bearing upon some of the points we have been considering, the two following extracts from statements made by prisoners will serve to illustrate the difficulty there is in arriving at any exact conclusion as to the state of mind in

the case of some criminals, W. S. makes the following statement:

I was convicted on my own confession of the crime of incendary (sic.), which confession I made while in a deranged state of mind, and at the time was not believed at first, and would not have been eventually but by the time came for my trial I was so far recovered, and they not being able to find out the true cause-or author-of the crime, I was considered as guilty, but I declare, as I would before the Eternal Judge of all, that I am innocient (sic), entirely innocient, of the crime, and I am confident that if, as I humbly pray may be done, investigation is made, my innocience will be proved, as there was and is no evidence against me but my own words; it is not so much for what mitigation may be made me that I earnestly desire my innocience to be proved; for, besides that, I have done nearly six years out of seven, the period of my sentence. I am in such an imbecile state of mind that I am not fit and have no desire to be at large, but it is for the sake of my friends, who feel and consider the guilt of the crime the greatest affliction that could be inflicted upon them. Also, in 1869, I charged myself with the crime of murder, and although there is no evidence of my innocience, but that I afterwards denied it, or of my guilt, any more than in the crime of incendary, yet there is no notice taken of it, although I am as guiltless of one as the other; if it is thought that I am not fit to be at large, I would willingly endure to be kept in confinement for the remainder of my life, if my innocience may but be proved, and made known.

This man was often very troublesome as a prisoner and even violent. He had a certain impertinent sort of taciturnity in his manner, but there was nothing of the imbecile about him. The other case shows a similar run of idea in an elderly prisoner, who had been convicted of a similar offence, arson, but whose conduct was good in every way. He had a quiet, subdued manner about him, and talked rationally and coherently on all subjects, with the exception of religion and Scripture. He was full of exaggerated and deluded ideas on the latter topics, for when he began with them there was no end to his talk. The following statement was made by J. K. :

J. K., having now completed two years' imprisonment, again entreats the favour of a reconsideration of the circumstances connected with the crime for which I am sentenced to five years' penal servitude, assured that the great searcher of hearts will direct to a righteous decision, whereby the Law shall be honoured by a remission of my sentence, or in my retention to fulfil its demands. Having described already the principal facts which led to so heinous a crime, a repetition will be unnecessary, save that my previous obedience to the law, my selfaccusation, and the imbecility of mind, from which I had been suffering for months, are the only solicitations I have to

offer for merciful consideration (except one), which, although of the most painful nature, and with the utmost repugnance, I disclose; yet for the justification of those, my friends, who may have pleaded a remission of my sentence upon the ground of temporary insanity, and as a proof that my mind was reduced to the lowest state of wretchedness, I am constrained to discover that which, but for the intervention of a merciful God, must have proved my Eternal ruin. About two months previous to my apprehension, I took my only dear little daughter, whom I loved to excess, from London Bridge to Battersea Pier by steamboat, with the awful intention of drowning both myself and my child, but an invisible hand was near, Whose power alone is infinite to save. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the Wisdom and the Love of God, how unsearchable are his judgment, and his ways past finding out. What shall I render unto Thee, O Lord, for such a mighty deliverance, for thou hast plucked me as a brand from the Eternal burning; Thou hast rescued my soul from the lowest Hell. Give me grace henceforth to devote the remnant of my days to thy service.

And so on for a foolscap page without returning to the subject in hand. These two independent statements show some strange coincidences in the circumstances of the cases, and in the train of thought which occupied the minds of the prisoners. Both were convicted of arson, both allude to selfaccusation, both claim to be mentally weak, both refer to homicidal propensities (real or fanciful), and both plead the feelings of their friends, and request a re-consideration of their case on grounds of the vagnest description. Both prisoners continue to do the ordinary out-door prison work, and neither required to be exempted from discipline on mental grounds. The cases form a curious collateral psychical puzzle.

(To be continued.)

Notes in regard to the Prevalence of Insanity and other Nervous Diseases in China. By GEORGE SHEARER, M.D., Liverpool.

The following rough notes are compiled chiefly from the reports of the various Mission Hospitals established throughout China, and the Health Returns of the Treaty Ports, published under the auspices of the Chinese Customs' Service. It is a very wide question, and our materials are scanty.

I am not aware of the existence of any institution in China of the nature of an asylum for the insane. Fatuous people are occasionally met with in out-of-the-way country

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »