March 3, 1881 - Buffalo Asylum Abuses

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As published in The New York Times:

BUFFALO ASYLUM ABUSES.

COMMISSIONER ORDRONAUX RECOMMENDS THE DISCHARGE OF THE ACCUSED ATTENDANTS.

Buffalo, March 2. - The State Commissioner in Lunacy has rendered the following decision in regard to alleged abuses in the Buffalo State Insane Asylum:

To the Managers of the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane:

Gentleman having been requested by your board to make inquiry into the truth of certain allegations of Frank P. Churchill, late an attendant at your asylum, charging that two fellow-attendants, named Robert H Jones and J F McMichael, had, to his personal knowledge, habitually maltreated patients confused to their care, the Commissioner submits herewith the findings and conclusions to which he has arrived after a careful consideration of the same. The organic act of the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane lodges in its Board of Managers the original power of control over all the property and concerns of the institution not otherwise provided for by law, and it is made their duty to take charge of its general interest, and to see that its great design be carried into effect and everything done faithfully according to the requirements of the Legislature and by-laws, rules, and regulations of the asylum.  Among these prerogatives is the power of employing and discharging servants, prescribing their duties, and otherwise regulating the domestic service of that institution.  A request on your part to the Commissioner in Lunacy for an inquiry into this service is to that extent a surrender of the territory of your proper jurisdiction.  Moreover, no formal complaint having been made to the Commissioner against any department of your administration, and no evidence having been laid before him furnishing any ground for his further officIal interference, the action of the Commissioner in thd premises and under these circumstances becomes, strictly speaking, advisory rather than judicial.

The publicity of this inquiry, added to the fact that the evidence recieved is spread before the public in the files of the daily press, renders it unnecessary for the Commissioner either to refer to it in detail or to weigh its probative force under the rules regulating the value of legal proofs. Besides which this evidence, by reason of its conflicting character, presents no preponderance in favor of either side, and the charges remain not sufficiently established to warrant any affirmative decisions upon their truth. It is manifest, however, from the very mature of the guardianship exercises over lunatics in asylums, that attendants who are patients should be free from any rainy of suspicion. In these peculiar positions of trust the character of every person implicated in allocations of this kind and brought into the field of public inquiry, although sufficient proof has not need adduced to justify a conviction, yet suffers in public estimation from the fact alone that the evidence is conflicted. Which such evidence, therefore, leaves the presumptons equally in question the effect nevertheless operates to the public discredit of the parties concerned, and their services should, in the Commissioner's judgement, be dispensed with prudential reasons. I am, very respectfully yours,

JOHN ORDRONAUX,
State Commissioner in Lunacy

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