52

CONFLICTING REPORTS

ABOUT ALLEGED INSANE ASYLUM ABUSES.

Reports of the Committee Investigating the Institution Located at Anna, Illinois.

The Majority Recites a Story of Cruelty Shocking in the Extreme.

While the Minority Stoutly Dissents and Contends That the Investigation Was all Entirely One-Sided Proceeding.

They Differ Greatly.

SPRINGFIELD. ILL., June 10,--The special committee appointed to investigate the charges of brutality and mismanagement against the officials of the southern insane hospital at Anna reported to the house to day that they found a most deplorable state of affairs. Many of the inmates had been brutally beaten, kicked, slapped, their hair pulled and their arms wrung. Some of the recitals were such that no one could believe any sane human being guilty of the cruelty told of. Helpless insane persons were thrown or knocked down and stamped upon. One patient was beaten, thrown into a bath tub; a towel tied about his neck and then he was drawn by it from the bath tub to the floor. Another was beaten and scratched with a coarse scrub bursh used to scrub the floor. Patients are forced to work out in the winter so scantily clothed that their persons are indecently exposed and their feet soaked with water. A patient was thrown upon the heater and held there until badly burned. Another with high fever was taken from his room and beaten for asking for water. These are but a few of the many inhuman acts practiced upon the inmates by employes of the hospital. The very vilest epithesis were used to the inmates. The beds they are forced to sleep on are in some instances in a very filthy condition. The committee finds the food furnished the inmates generally fair except sugar, which is of a cheap quality, while that furnished the employes is the best. Although 100 gallons of milk goes each day into the kitchen, none of it gets into the wards. It is drank up in the kitchen or stolen by the attendants. Of this 100 gallons of milk daily only five and one-half gallons could be certainly traced from the kitchen and that goes to the table of the superintendant. The committe believes the inmates are deprived of the early vegetables and that they are sold. Employes steal from the institution regularly. Certain employes living outside the hospital help themselves to garden truck, bread, coffee, spoons, etc., feed their horses at the state stable and use state pastures. That the superintendent and officers of the institution were fully aware of these abuses there is from the evidence no doubt. In fact one of the officers himself held a female patient by the hair and stuffed an apron into her mouth. As many as ten people are forced to bathe in the same tub of water, which certainly becomes terribly filthy. The evidence clearly shows that the superintendent, physicians, supervisors and trustees have been informed of these things yet they still go on. The committee believes the treasurer of the hospital deposits the funds in a bank and converts the interest to his own private use; that he bought Mexican dollars at a discount of 15 per cent and paid them at par; that he was drawing two salaries from the state at the same time, one as a member of the Thirty-seventh general assembly and one as treasurer of this institution. The committee recommends the immediate dismissal of attendants Paul, Halley, Ansbrock, Leidick, Dickey, Meisenheimer, Lucretia Robinson, Harleys Robinson and Dick Slack, they being brutal and wholly unfitted for the position they occupy. The committee sincerely regrets they did not have time to fully investigate the institution, being contident that a full inquiry would bring to light many more instances of abuse.

The republican minority of the committee dissent from the majority and in a lengthy report they say from beginning to the end of the investigation they were not permitted to have a fair and impartial investigation. The superintendent and trustees were denied the right to be present either in person or by counsel to hear and confront the witnesses to hear and confront the witnesses produced and sworn under exclusive management of the majority of the committee. The minority says if the wild vagaries of persons known to be insane, together with evidence of prejudiced, discharged and disgruntled attendants, is worth anything, then such evidence, without the opportunity of contradicting the same only went to show that there had been some brutality in years gone by, but long before the time the present superintendent took charge. The minority holds there is no evidence of any brutality or mismanagement on the part of the present superintendent. The beds were well kept and clean and the food furnished the inamtes wholesome and ample. There was no evidence before the committee that under the present management any attendant, publicly or privately, used vile language, and in each charge of brutality when attendants were called before the committee there was an emphatic denial of the same. The minority denies the charges of the majority that employes stole the supplies of the state or fed horses at the state stables or pastures under the present management, and asserts that the patients were comfortably clothed. There is no evidence except the statement of one crazy person, which wa sfound to be untrue, that Superintendent Elrod ever had knowledge of any irregularities or brutalities except a few instances in which cases the attendants were promptly discharged. The minority says the person upon whom affidavit investigation was ordered stated under oath before the committee, that he had written a number of vile and obscene letters wholly unfit for publication, to Dr. Elrod before and since his escape from the

NOT COMPLETE 5/30/2020.

CONFLICTING REPORTS

ABOUT ALLEGED INSANE ASYLUM ABUSES.

Reports of the Committee Investigating the Institution Located at Anna, Illinois.

The Majority Recites a Story of Cruelty Shocking in the Extreme.

While the Minority Stoutly Dissents and Contends That the Investigation Was all Entirely One-Sided Proceeding.

They Differ Greatly.

SPRINGFIELD. ILL., June 10,--The special committee appointed to investigate the charges of brutality and mismanagement against the officials of the southern insane hospital at Anna reported to the house to day that they found a most deplorable state of affairs. Many of the inmates had been brutally beaten, kicked, slapped, their hair pulled and their arms wrung. Some of the recitals were such that no one could believe any sane human being guilty of the cruelty told of. Helpless insane persons were thrown or knocked down and stamped upon. One patient was beaten, thrown into a bath tub; a towel tied about his neck and then he was drawn by it from the bath tub to the floor. Another was beaten and scratched with a coarse scrub bursh used to scrub the floor. Patients are forced to work out in the winter so scantily clothed that their persons are indecently exposed and their feet soaked with water. A patient was thrown upon the heater and held there until badly burned. Another with high fever was taken from his room and beaten for asking for water. These are but a few of the many inhuman acts practiced upon the inmates by employes of the hospital. The very vilest epithesis were used to the inmates. The beds they are forced to sleep on are in some instances in a very filthy condition. The committee finds the food furnished the inmates generally fair except sugar, which is of a cheap quality, while that furnished the employes is the best. Although 100 gallons of milk goes each day into the kitchen, none of it gets into the wards. It is drank up in the kitchen or stolen by the attendants. Of this 100 gallons of milk daily only five and one-half gallons could be certainly traced from the kitchen and that goes to the table of the superintendant. The committe believes the inmates are deprived of the early vegetables and that they are sold. Employes steal from the institution regularly. Certain employes living outside the hospital help themselves to garden truck, bread, coffee, spoons, etc., feed their horses at the state stable and use state pastures. That the superintendent and officers of the institution were fully aware of these abuses there is from the evidence no doubt. In fact one of the officers himself held a female patient by the hair and stuffed an apron into her mouth. As many as ten people are forced to bathe in the same tub of water, which certainly becomes terribly filthy. The evidence clearly shows that the superintendent, physicians, supervisors and trustees have been informed of these things yet they still go on. The committee believes the treasurer of the hospital deposits the funds in a bank and converts the interest to his own private use; that he bought Mexican dollars at a discount of 15 per cent and paid them at par; that he was drawing two salaries from the state at the same time, one as a member of the Thirty-seventh general assembly and one as treasurer of this institution. The committee recommends the immediate dismissal of attendants Paul, Halley, Ansbrock, Leidick, Dickey, Meisenheimer, Lucretia Robinson, Harleys Robinson and Dick Slack, they being brutal and wholly unfitted for the position they occupy. The committee sincerely regrets they did not have time to fully investigate the institution, being contident that a full inquiry would bring to light many more instances of abuse.

NOT COMPLETE 5/29/2020.