Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 June 1891 — CRYING NEED FOR REFORM. [ARTICLE]

CRYING NEED FOR REFORM.

Revelations of Revolting Inhumanity and Thievery In an Insane Hospital. The special committee appointed to investigate charges of brutality and mismanagement against officials of the State Southern Insane Hospital at Anna, 111., reported that they found a most deplorable state of affairs. Many inmates have been beaten, kicked and otherwise fearfully maltreated. Patients were forced to work out in winter with such scanty clothing that their bodies were indecently exposed and their feet soaked with water. In one case a patient was thrown on a heater and held there until badiy burned. A nother, with high fever, was taken from his room and beaten for asking for water. The vilest epithets were used to inmates, anil their beds were, in some instances, in a very filthy condition. Although one hundred gallons of milk goes each day into the kitchen, none, of it gets into the Wards. It is drunk up or stolen by the attendants. The committee believes the inmates are deprived of the early vegetables and that they are sold. The evidence clearly shows, it is stated, that the superintendent, physicians, supervisors and trustees have all been informed of these things. The committee believes the treasurer of the hospital deposits the'funds in a bank and converts the interest to his own personal uses; also, that lie has purchased Mexican dollars at a discount of 15 per cent, and paid them at par. The committee recommends the immediate dismissal of attendants Paul, Halley, Austbrook, Leidiek, Dickey, Neisenheimer, Lucretia Robinson, Harley Robinson and Mick Slack, as being not oniv.brutal, but wholly unfitted for the positions they occupy.