State prison at sewage. SECT. 8. This act shall take effect at the expiration of ninety days after its passage. [Approved May 26, 1882. RESOLVE IN FAVOR OF THE STATE PRISON AT CONCORD. Resolved, That there be allowed and paid out of the treasury of the Commonwealth a sum not exceeding six thousand dollars, to be expended under the approval of the commissioners of prisons, for the ventilation of the state prison buildings, and for the dispo sition of the sewage in the prison precincts. The board of health, lunacy and charity, whenever requested so to do by the selectmen of the town of Concord, shall ascertain whether the sewage of the state prison has been purified or cleansed in a manner satisfactory to said board. If upon investigation they shall find that it has not been so purified or cleansed, they shall forthwith notify the board of commissioners of prisons to that effect, and said board of commissioners shall thereupon forthwith proceed to purify and cleanse said sewage in such manner as said board of health, lunacy and charity shall in writing approve, or so dispose of the same that no part thereof shall enter the Assabet River. [Approved May 12, 1881. PART SECOND. THE LUNACY LAWS. [Public Statutes, Chap. 87.] OF LUNACY AND INSTITUTIONS FOR LUNATICS. GENERAL DUTIES OF STATE BOARD. SECTION 21. Fees of officers, jurors, and witnesses. 22. Judge to keep docket, original applica tion, etc. 23. Fees of judges, physicians, and officers. 24. Expenses, how paid. 25. State board to apply for commitment to hospital, when. 26. Persons violently insane may be received at hospitals without warrant of commitment, when. 27. Bond in such cases. 28. Persons making voluntary application may be received. 29. Notice to be given to board of health, lunacy, and charity. 30. Penalty upon physician for conspiring to commit sane person. EXPENSES. 31. Price of board for lunatic paupers in state hospitals. 32. Charges for state paupers, to be paid quarterly; and may afterwards be recov ered by the state. 33. For town and city paupers, to be paid quarterly; if not, may be recovered, etc. 34. Remedy of towns paying for support, etc. 14. On application for commitment to state hospital, notice to be given to selectmen, CERTAIN PRIVILEGES OF PATIENTS IN HOS etc. 15. In all cases, statement to be filed with judge, etc. 16. Judge may cause alleged lunatic to be brought before him. 17. Jury may be summoned. 18. How jury to be selected and impanelled. 19. Judge to preside; verdict. 20. How deficiency in jury may be suppl PITALS. 35. Attorney may visit patients, when. 36. Patients shall be allowed to write letters to certain persons; shall be furnished with materials for correspondence; boxes for letters, etc. ASYLUM FOR CHRONIC INSANE. 37. Asylum for chronic insane at Worcester. 51 State board to be commissioners of lunacy, etc. 1879, 291, § 5. GENERAL DUTIES OF STATE BOARD. SECTION 1. The state board of health, lunacy, and charity shall act as commissioners of lunacy, with power to investigate the question of the insanity and condition of any person committed to any lunatic hospital or asylum, public or private, or restrained of his liberty by reason of alleged insanity, at any place within this commonwealth; and shall discharge any person so committed or restrained, if in its opinion such person is not insane, or can be cared for after such discharge without danger to others, and with benefit to himself. [For other powers of the State Board, see chap. 79, Public Statutes.] Titles of hospitals. 1862, 223, § 1. 1877, 252, § 1. Lands of hospitals not to be etc., unless, etc. 1862, 223, § 2. STATE LUNATIC HOSPITALS. SECT. 2. The titles of the state lunatic hospitals shall be severally, the Worcester Lunatic Hospital, the Taunton Lunatic Hospital, the Northampton Lunatic Hospital, and the Danvers Lunatic Hospital. SECT. 3. The lands now holden and which may hereafter be taken for streets, holden by the trustees of any state lunatic hospital in trust for the commonwealth, for the use of the institution of which they are trustees, shall not be taken for a street, highway, or railroad, without leave of the legislature specially obtained. Government of each hospital vested in five trustees. Appointment SECT. 4. The government of each of the state lunatic hospitals at Worcester, Taunton, Northampton, and Danvers, shall be vested in a board of five trustees, appointed and commissioned by the governor with the advice and consent of the council, subject to removal only for sufficient cause. The trustees now in office shall continue to hold their offices until the terms thereof expire according to the provisions of this section. On the first Wednesday of February in each year the term of office of the senior member in each board, as they stand arranged on the list of their appointments, shall terminate, and the name of the person appointed to fill the vacancy shall be placed at the bottom of the list, and other vacancies may at any time be filled, and the names of the persons appointed substituted in the list for the remainder of the vacant terms. SECT. 5. The trustees of each hospital shall be a corporation for the purpose of taking and holding, to them and their successors, in trust for the commonwealth, any grant or devise of lands, and any donation or bequest of money or other personal property, made for the use of the institution of which they are trustees, and for the purpose of preserving and investing the proceeds thereof in notes or bonds secured by good and sufficient mortgages or other securities, with all the powers necessary to carry said purposes into effect. SECT. 6. They shall take charge of the general interests of the institution and see that its affairs are conducted according to the requirements of the legislature and the by-laws and regulations which the board shall establish for the internal government and economy thereof; and they shall be reimbursed all expenses incurred in the discharge of their official duties. SECT. 7. They shall establish by-laws and regulations, with suitable penalties, for the internal government and economy of the institution; shall appoint a superintendent who shall be a physician and constantly reside at the hospital; and a treasurer who shall give bond for the faithful discharge of his duties; shall appoint, or make provision in the by-laws for appointing, such officers as in their opinion may be necessary for conducting efficiently and economically the business of the institution; and shall determine, subject to the approval of the governor and council, the salaries of all the officers. All their appointments shall be made in such manner, with such restrictions, and for such terms of time, as the by-laws may prescribe. SECT. 8. The salaries of the superintendents, assistant physicians, stewards, and matrons of the state lunatic hospitals, shall be paid quarterly from the current receipts of the several hospitals. SECT. 9. There shall be thorough visitations of each hospital by two of the trustees thereof monthly, and by a majority of them quarterly, and by the whole board semi-annually, at each Visitation of hospitals, an nual meeting, of G. S. 73, § 6. reports. Treasurer's books. G. S. 73, § 7. which a written account of the state of the institution shall be drawn up, which shall be presented at the annual meeting to be held between the first and fifteenth days of October. At the annual meeting a full and detailed report shall be made, exhibiting a particular statement of the condition of the hospital and all its concerns, with a list of the salaried officers and their salaries, and in a tabular form, under the heads specified in section seven of chapter seventy-nine, the value of the stock and supplies, to be laid before the governor and council on or before the fifteenth day of October, for the use of the government; and at the same meeting the treasurer shall present to the trustees his annual report on the finances of the institution; both of which reports shall be made up to the thirtieth day of September inclusive. The trustees shall audit the report of the treasurer, and transmit it with their annual report to the governor and council. SECT. 10. The accounts and books of the treasurer shall at all times be open to the inspection of the trustees. Judges may commit insane COMMITMENTS TO HOSPITALS. SECT. 11. A judge of the supreme judicial court or superior persons to state court, in any county where he may be, and a judge of the probate hospitals. 1862, 223, § 3. court, or of a police, district, or municipal court, within his county, 1879, 195, § 1. may commit to either of the state lunatic hospitals any insane person, then residing or being in said county, who in his opinion. is a proper subject for its treatment or custody. No person to be 1862, 223, § 3. 111 Mass. 308. SECT. 12. Except when otherwise specially provided, no person shall be committed to a lunatic hospital, asylum, or other receptacle for the insane, public or private, without an order or certificate therefor, signed by one of the judges named in the preceding section, said person residing or being within the county as therein provided. Such order or certificate shall state that the judge finds that the person committed is insane, and is a fit person for treatment in an insane asylum. And said judge shall see and examine the person alleged to be insane, or state in his final order the reason why it was not deemed necessary or advisable to do so. The hearing, except when a jury is summoned, shall be at such place as the judge shall appoint. In all cases the judge shall certify in what place the lunatic resided at the time of his commitment; or if the confinement is ordered by a court, the judge shall certify in what place the lunatic resided at the time of the arrest in pursuance of which he was held to answer before such court; and such certificate shall, for the purposes of the preceding section, be conclusive evidence of his residence. |