Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum (Ireland) Act, 1845

CENTRAL CRIMINAL LUNATIC ASYLUM (IRELAND) ACT 1845

CHAPTER CVII.

An Act for the Establishment of a Central Asylum for Insane Persons charged with Offences in Ireland; and to amend the Act relating to the Prevention of Offences by Insane Persons, and the Acts respecting Asylums for the Insane Poor, in Ireland; and for appropriating the Lunatic Asylum in the City of Cork to the Purposes of a District Lunatic Asylum. [1] [8th August 1845.]

Whereas it is expedient that one central asylum in or near the City of Dublin should be provided for the custody and care of criminal lunatics:

Commissioners of public works to provide a central asylum for criminal lunatics.

[1.] The commissioners of public works in Ireland for the time being shall be trustees for the purpose of purchasing or providing, as herein-after mentioned, any buildings, lands, tenements, or hereditaments that may be necessary for the said central asylum, and the site thereof, and the premises to be occupied therewith, and for erecting thereon suitable buildings, and for repairing, enlarging, improving, upholding, and furnishing the same from time to time.

Commissioners to be a corporation for the purposes of this Act.

2. For the purposes of this Act the said commissioners of public works in Ireland for the time being, and their successors, shall be a corporation, by the name or style of “The Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland,” and by that name, for the purposes of this Act, shall have perpetual succession and a common seal, to be by them made and from time to time altered as they shall think fit, and shall and may sue and be sued, plead or be impleaded, in all courts, and before all justices and others, and in that capacity shall be deemed promoters of the undertaking authorized to be executed by this Act.

Power to commissioners to purchase or rent buildings, lands, &c., which may be required for such central asylum.

3. In order to enable the said commissioners of public works in Ireland to purchase and provide the buildings, lands, tenements, and hereditaments which may be required for the said commissioners, with the approval of the Treasury, to contract and agree with any person or persons, or body or bodies corporate, for the purchase or renting of any buildings, lands, tenements, or hereditaments required for such central asylum, or the site thereof, and the premises to be occupied therewith, and also for the purchase of any subsisting leases, terms, estates, or interests therein, or charges thereon; and the buildings, lands, tenements, or hereditaments so contracted and agreed for shall be conveyed, assigned, or demised to or in trust for her Majesty in such manner and form as the Treasury shall direct.

Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, except as to purchase of lands otherwise than by agreement, incorporated with this Act.

4. In order to enable the said commissioners of public works to purchase and provide the said buildings, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, shall be incorporated with this Act, except the clauses with respect to the purchase and taking of lands otherwise than by agreement: Provided always, that all things by the said Act required or authorized to be done by the promoters of the undertaking may be done by any two of the commissioners of public works in Ireland, subject to the approval of the Treasury, in the cases provided by this Act.

Commissioners to obtain surveys, plans, and specifications, and submit same to the Treasury.

On approval of Treasury, works to be executed.

5. It shall be lawful for the said commissioners of public works, if they shall be so directed by the Treasury, to employ any competent surveyor or architect to make a survey and estimate of the said proposed work, and to prepare such plan, section, or specification thereof as may be necessary, and sent the same to the Treasury for their approval; and if the Treasury shall think fit to authorize the work in any such plan, section, or specification, or any modification thereof which they may think proper to be undertaken, they shall, by warrant, direct the said commissioners of public works to execute such work, at and for an amount not exceeding a sum to be specified in such warrant; and the said commissioners of public works shall, upon receipt of such warrant, forthwith cause the construction of the work mentioned therein to be proceeded with.

Commissioners to lay accounts before the Treasury.

Commissioners to obey directions of Treasury.

6. The said commissioners of public works shall cause accounts in writing of the several sums received by them as such commissioners for the purposes of this Act, and the sums expended by them for such purposes, and the mode of such expenditure, to be made up to the thirty-first day of December in each year, or to such period as the Treasury shall direct; and the said commissioners shall, as often as they shall be required so to do by the Treasury, transmit to the Treasury the said accounts; and it shall be lawful for the Treasury to give such directions as they shall think proper, defining the duties of the said commissioners of public works in the execution of this Act; and the said commissioners of public works shall observe all such directions as aforesaid which shall from time to time be signified to them by the Treasury.

Provisions of 1 & 2 Will. 4. c. 33. as to actions, &c. by and against the commissioners of public works, &c. shall apply to proceedings for things done under this Act.

7. The several enactments contained in the Public Works (Ireland) Act, 1831, which affect or relate to any action or suit to be commenced against the commissioners for the execution of the last-recited Act, or their secretary, or any person or persons, for any thing done by virtue of or in pursuance of the last-recited Act, or in any proceedings in any such action or suit, or any limitation of time for the commencement thereof, . . . or any evidence to be given therein, or any notice of action or suit, or satisfaction, or tender thereof, or any action or suit to be commenced by the said commissioners, or any proceedings therein, or the said commissioners suing or being sued in the name of their secretary, or any abatement or discontinuance of any such action or suit, or the court in which, or to the terms or conditions on which, any such action or suit shall be brought against the said commissioners, collectively or individually, or their secretary, shall be held to apply to and extend to any action or suit to be commenced against the commissioners of public works in Ireland, or their secretary, or any person or persons, for any thing done by virtue of or in pursuance of this Act, or to any proceedings in any such action or suit, or to the limitation or time for the commencing thereof, . . . or to any notice of any such action or suit, or to any evidence to be given therein, or to any action or suit to be commenced by the said commissioners of public works in the execution of this Act, or on account of or in pursuance of this Act, or to any proceedings in any such action or suit, or to the said commissioners suing or being sued in the name of their secretary for the time being, or to any abatement or discontinuance of any such action or suit, or to the court in which, or to the terms or conditions on which any such action or suit shall be brought against the said commissioners of public works, collectively or individually, or against their secretary.

1 & 2 Geo. 4. c. 33. s. 16.

Sect. 18.

When central asylum has been erected, lord lieutenant may order the removal of criminal lunatics to such asylum.

8. And whereas by an Act passed in the session of Parliament holden in the first and second years of the reign of his late Majesty King George the Fourth, intituled “An Act to make more effectual provision for the establishment of asylums for the lunatic poor, and for the custody of insane persons charged with offences in Ireland,” it is amongst other things enacted that it should be lawful for the lord lieutenant to give such order for the safe custody and care of criminals found insane as in the said Act mentioned, during the pleasure of the lord lieutenant, in such place and in such manner as should seem fit; and it is by said Act further provided and enacted, that whenever and as soon as there should be a lunatic asylum built or maintained, either wholly or in part, in any county, county of a city, or county of a town wherein such prisoner as therein mentioned, should be tried or found insane as therein mentioned, then and from thenceforth such insane person should without delay be removed to such asylum as therein mentioned, and should be kept therein so long as such prisoner should be detained in custody: Be it enacted, that whenever and as soon as the said central asylum shall be erected, and fit for the reception of criminal lunatics, it shall be lawful for the lord lieutenant to order and direct that all criminal lunatics then in custody in any lunatic asylum or gaol, or who shall thereafter be in custody, shall be removed without delay to such central asylum, and shall be kept therein so long as such criminal lunatics respectively shall be detained in custody.

Lord lieutenant to appoint the officers and servants of central asylum, and lord lieutenant and council to make rules and regulations for the government thereof.

9. It shall and may be lawful for the lord lieutenant to nominate and appoint such persons as he shall think fit and proper to be governor, physician, surgeon, apothecary, matron, keepers, officers, and servants of said central asylum; and also it shall and may be lawful for the lord lieutenant, by and with the advice of her Majesty’s privy council in Ireland, from time to time to make, frame, and establish any rules and regulations which may be necessary or proper for the good conduct and management of the said central asylum, and from time to time to revoke, alter, or make new such rules and regulations.

[S. 10 (reciting 1 & 2 Vict.c. 27. s. 1) rep. 54 & 55 Vict. c. 67. (S.L.R.)]

1 & 2 Vict. c. 27. s. 2.

Lord lieutenant may discharge a person committed as a dangerous lunatic if cured.

11. And whereas by the said Act it is also amongst other things enacted, that it should be lawful for the lord lieutenant, if he should so think fit, to direct, by warrant under his hand, that any person who might be detained in custody in any gaol by virtue of any such warrant as aforesaid should be removed to the lunatic asylum established either wholly or in part for the county, county of a city, or county of a town in which such person should be in custody; and every such person so removed should remain under confinement in every asylum to which such person might be removed until it should be duly certified to the said lord lieutenant, by two physicians or surgeons, or a surgeon and physician, that such person had become of sound mind, whereupon the said lord lieutenant was thereby authorized to issue his or their warrant to the keeper or other person should be discharged: Be it enacted, that whenever it shall be duly certified to the said lord lieutenant, in manner aforesaid, that any such person has become of sound mind, or has ceased to be or is not a dangerous lunatic or a dangerous idiot, it shall and may be lawful for the said lord lieutenant, and he is hereby authorized, to issue his warrant to the keeper or other person having the care of any such asylum, directing that such person shall be discharged.

Convicts who become insane, may be removed to central asylum.

Such persons, when certified to have become of sound mind, to be sent back to prison, or discharged, if entitled to discharge.

12. Whenever and as soon as the said central asylum shall be erected and fit for the reception of lunatics, it shall be lawful for the said lord lieutenant, if he shall so think fit, to direct, by warrant under his hand, that any person who may be under any sentence of imprisonment or transportation in any gaol or place of confinement, or in any district asylum, and in respect of whom it shall be certified by two physicians or surgeons, or a surgeon and physician, that such person is or has become insane, shall be removed to the said central asylum; and every such person so removed shall remain under confinement in said asylum so long as such person shall remain subject to be continued in custody, or until it shall be duly certified to the said lord lieutenant by two physicians or surgeons, or a surgeon and physician, that such person has become of sound mind, whereupon the said lord lieutenant is hereby authorized, if such his warrant to the keeper or other person having the care of any such asylum, directing that such person shall be remitted to the prison or other place of confinement from which he or she shall have been taken, or, if such person shall be entitled to his or her discharge, to direct the discharge accordingly.

Maximum number of patients in district lunatic asylums.

13. [Recital of 1 & 2 Geo. 4. c. 33. s. 2; 7 Geo. 4. c. 14; 1 Will. 4. c. 13 (being an Act to amend 11 Geo. 4. & 1 Will. 4. c. 22), and repeal of part of 1 & 2 Geo. 4. c. 33. rep. 54 & 55 Vict. c. 67. (S.L.R.)] Notwithstanding anything in the said last-mentioned Act, or in any other Act or Acts, to the contrary, it shall and may be lawful to receive, maintain, and take care of, within every such district lunatic asylum, any number of lunatic poor whatsoever, for the reception and accommodation of whom such asylum shall or may afford space and capacity; and the care, maintenance, superintendence, and expenditure which shall be or become requisite for or in respect of all such lunatic poor shall be defrayed, raised, and provided for in all respects as the care, maintenance, superintendence, and expenditure requisite for or in respect of such limited number of lunatic poor as before the passing of this Act it was or might have been lawful to maintain and take care of in such lunatic asylum might or ought to have been defrayed, raised, and provided for: Provided, nevertheless, that the maximum number of lunatics admissible into such asylums respectively shall first be fixed and determined from time to time by the lord lieutenant.

Lord lieutenant may make orders in council for the enlargement of district lunatic asylums.

14. [Recital of 7 Geo. 4. c. 14. s. 1.] If it shall be deemed necessary, at any time hereafter, to enlarge or extend the buildings of any district asylum for the lunatic poor in Ireland, or the out-offices thereof, or to procure more ground fit or necessary to be enjoyed therewith, then and in every such case it shall and may be lawful to and for the lord lieutenant, by and with the advice of her Majesty’s privy council in Ireland, from time to time, and whenever it shall seem expedient to him so to do, to direct and order that such enlargement or extension shall be made, or such additional ground as may be required shall be obtained, or, where it shall be inconvenient or impracticable to erect or obtain additional buildings adjoining to any such district asylum or asylums, then that additional buildings, with the ground fit or necessary to be enjoyed therewith, shall be erected, established, rented, or purchased within the same district, and as near as conveniently may be to such asylums respectively; and such additional buildings and ground shall be held in connexion with and as part of the asylum for the district in which said additional buildings or ground shall be situate; and every order in council to be made for any such purposes shall be published in the Dublin Gazette.

Asylums or additional buildings may be appropriated for the exclusive reception of particular classes of pauper lunatics, distinguishable by the character of the disease.

Provincial asylums may be established and appropriated to particular classes.

Removal of patients from one asylum to another.

15. In order to provide for the more effectual treatment of pauper lunatics by a better classification of the same, it shall and may be lawful for the lord lieutenant, by and with the advice and consent of her Majesty’s privy council in Ireland, from time to time and at all times, whenever and so often as shall seem expedient to him so to do, to direct and order that any existing asylum or additional buildings which may be made to existing asylums under the provisions of this Act shall and may be exclusively appropriated for the sole and exclusive reception, custody, and treatment of a particular class of the said pauper lunatics, distinguishable by the nature and character of the disease, and whether recent in its origin or chronic, or whether considered curable or incurable, or to direct and order that a provincial asylum for the lunatic poor shall be erected, established, and maintained in and for any or each of the provinces of Ireland, to be so appropriated to any particular class or classes of lunatic poor of such province as aforesaid, such provincial asylums to be in addition to any district asylum or asylums erected or to be erected under said recited Acts or any of them, and from time to time to make rules and orders for the government and control thereof, and for the admission of lunatics thereto; and with the view to make room in any such district lunatic asylum appropriated for the treatment and reception of recent and curable cases for patients deemed capable of cure, it shall and may be lawful for the lord lieutenant from time to time to cause to be removed from such district lunatic asylum, to such other asylum connected with such district, and appropriated specially for chronic cases or cases apprehended to be incurable, any lunatics who shall be certified by the committee of management, the manager, and by the medical officer, of such first-mentioned district asylum, as a proper patient to be removed to an asylum for chronic lunatics for such district, or connected therewith.

Provisions of 1 & 2 Geo. 4. c. 33; 7 Geo. 4. c. 14; 11 Geo. 4. & 1 Will. 4. c. 22. to apply to this Act; but not to central asylum.

Expence of erecting, &c. district asylums, &c.

Districts of provincial asylums.

16. All enactments contained in the said Acts of the first and second years of the reign of his late Majesty King George the Fourth, and of the seventh year of the reign of his said late Majesty, and of the eleventh year of the reign of his said late Majesty, and in any Act or Acts amending the same or any of them, shall and may from time to time and as occasion may require, so far as the same are applicable, and not repugnant to the provisions hereof, be extended, applied, used, exercised, and enforced, to and in respect of any asylums, buildings, or ground which may be erected, purchased, or rented under the provisions of this Act, save and except as to such central asylum first herein mentioned; and the expence of erecting, establishing, and maintaining every district asylum for the lunatic poor in Ireland, and every asylum which under the provisions of this Act shall be so exclusively appropriated for the reception of a particular class or description of pauper lunatics, together with the ground so rented or purchased, or the buildings so to be erected or obtained, adjoining to or in connexion therewith respectively, shall be raised in such manner as is directed by said Acts or any of them; and every such asylum shall be subject to all such rules and regulations as are contained in the said recited Acts; and the said Acts and this Act shall be construed together as one Act; and in any case of a provincial asylum erected and established for any province as aforesaid, such province and the several counties, counties of cities, and counties of towns, situate therein, shall be deemed and taken as a district attached to such asylum: Provided always, that the erection and establishment of any such provincial asylum shall not be deemed in any respect to prejudice or interfere with any district lunatic asylum situate therein, or any district assigned or attached to the same, or any provisions relating thereto.

On change of district of any asylum, no sum for maintenance of asylum to be raised off counties, &c. comprised in new district, or repaid to county, &c taken out of district.

17. [Recital of 7 Geo. 4. c. 14. s. 2.] When any change of the district of any district asylum shall be made no sum of money for defraying the expences of maintaining or supporting any such district asylum (after the same shall have been erected and established) shall be raised off any county, county of a city, or county of a town, or any part thereof, which shall remain (or be) within such district, or be repaid to the treasurer of the county, county of a city, or county of a town, which shall have been removed from such district, or be raised off any county, county of a city, or county of a town, or part thereof, which shall have been comprised in any former district, and shall by reason of any such change be comprised in or form part of any new district for any such asylum, any thing in the said recited enactment to the contrary notwithstanding.

[S. 18 rep. 38 & 39 Vict. c. 66. (S.L.R.)]

Cork Lunatic Asylum shall become a district lunatic asylum for the county and the city of Cork, and for such other counties if any, as shall be added thereto. 1 & 2 Geo. 4. c. 33.

19. The Cork Lunatic Asylum shall and may be and become a district lunatic asylum for the county of Cork and the county of the city of Cork, and for such other county or counties, if any, as from time to time may, under the provisions of the said Act of the first and second years of his late Majesty King George the Fourth, or any Act amending same, be constituted, together with the said county of Cork and county of the city of Cork, a district for a lunatic asylum; and all rules, orders, regulations, rights, powers, authorities, privileges, liabilities, provisoes, and enactments, contained in the said Act of the first and second years of King George the Fourth, and of any Act or Acts amending same, and of this Act, shall and may from time to time, as occasion may require, be extended, applied, used, exercised, and enforced, to and in respect of the district so constituted, in like manner to all intents and purposes as in the case of any district lunatic asylum created or established by or subject to the provisions of the said recited Act, or any Act amending same, or this Act.

Grand juries of Cork, &c. shall make presentments for support of such asylum, in manner provided by 1 & 2 Geo c. 33., and 6 & 7 Will. 4. c. 116.

20. It shall and may be lawful for the grant juries of the county of the city of Cork and of the county of Cork, and of each other county, if any, which may or shall from time to time constitute part of or be included in the district belonging to the said asylum, and such grant juries are hereby respectively required, to present, to be raised off the said city and each such county respectively, any sum or sums of money requisite to pay the expences of the said asylum, as well those of any building, alteration, or reparation thereof, or of the purchase of any ground or property for the purposes thereof, as those of the maintenance, clothing, and other charges of the patients therein, in like manner, with the same authorities, and under the same regulations and restrictions, as are provided in and by the said Act of the first and second years of his late Majesty’s reign with respect to any district lunatic asylum, or any Act or Acts amending same, or in and by the Grand Jury (Ireland) Act, 1836.

Asylum to be vested incommissioners to be appointed under 1 & 2 Geo. 4. c. 33.

21. The said asylum, and the ground and soil where the same stands, and the several materials and appurtenances, shall be and become vested in such commissioners as have been or shall, pursuant to the provisions of the said recited Act of the first and second years of his Majesty, be nominated and appointed for the district to which the said asylum shall belong, or any three or them, and to their heirs and successors, in trust for and to the uses and purposes of the said asylum as such district lunatic asylum.

Rules and regulations for lecturers by medical attendants.

22. It shall and may be lawful for the lord lieutenant, by and with the advice of her Majesty’s privy council in Ireland, to make and found such rules and regulations for the holding of lectures by the medical attendant or attendants of the said central asylum, or said provincial or district asylums, or any of them, as to the said lord lieutenant, with the advice of said privy council aforesaid, may seem fit.

Inspectors of lunatics.

23. The lord lieutenant or other chief governor or governors of Ireland shall be and he or they are hereby empowered, if they shall so think fit, to appoint one or two duly qualified and experienced persons to act as inspectors of lunatics in Ireland; and on such appointments the functions of the inspectors general of prisons in Ireland, so far as they relate to the inspection of lunatic asylums or other establishments for lunatics, shall be transferred to such inspectors of lunatics so to be appointed under this Act, and such inspectors of lunatics shall thereon undertake and perform all the duties in respect to lunatic asylums which heretofore have been undertaken and performed by the inspector general of prisons, under the provisions of any previous Act, and under this Act.

Inspectors to visit asylums and inquire into the management thereof.

24. One of the said inspectors shall once or oftener in each year, on such day or days and at such hours of the day and for such length of time as they shall think fit, visit every asylum for lunatics or house for the reception of the same, and every gaol, union workhouse, or house of industry, in which there shall be or alleged to be any lunatic, and shall inquire whether the provisions of the law have been carried out in the management of such establishments respectively, and also as to the regularity of the admissions and discharges of patients therein and therefrom, and whether divine service is performed therein, and whether any system of coercion is in practice therein, and the result thereof, and as to the classification or non-classification of patients therein, and the number of attendants on each class, and as to the occupations and amusement of the patients and the effects thereof, and as to the condition as well mental as bodily of the patients when first received, and also as to the dietary of the patients, and shall also make such other inquiries as to the lunatics as aforesaid, as to such inspectors shall seem meet.

Registry of admissions, and of discharges and deaths, and medical journal.

25. There shall be kept in each district asylum for the lunatic poor which is or may be hereafter established in Ireland a registry of admissions, a registry of discharges and deaths, and a medical journal, in the forms set forth in the schedule to this Act annexed, which forms shall be adopted and used hereafter in the place of the forms for similar purposes now in use in such asylums respectively.

Interpretation of terms.

1 & 2 Geo. 4. c. 33.

26. The term “criminal lunatic” in this Act shall be construed to mean any person acquitted on the ground of insanity, or found to have been insane, under the provisions of the said Act passed in the session of Parliament holden in the first and second years of the reign of his late Majesty King George the Fourth; and the term “lunatic” shall be construed to mean any insane person.

Extent of Act.

27. This Act shall extend only to Ireland.

[S. 28 rep. 38 & 39 Vict. c. 66. (S.L.R.)]

[1 Short title, “The Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum (Ireland) Act, 1845.” See 55 & 56 Vict. c. 10.]