Scotland in the nineteenth century

2. Crime and punishment

Section 2.3: Criminal lunacy

"to inquire whether it is desirable that criminal lunatics should be separated from pauper lunatics to a greater degree than at present; whether special provisions should be made for the care and custody of imbeciles and lunatics who are habitually criminal; whether any change should be made in the incidence of charge for the maintenance of any class of criminal lunatics..."

Criminal lunatics were defined by the Commissioners as:

1. Those put on trial on some criminal charge and acquitted on the grounds of sanity.
2. Those found insane upon arraignment.
3. Convicts and other prisoners undergoing sentences who have become insane under sentence.

Scottish criminal lunatics had been confined until recently in English convict prisons. The Secretary of State had had them removed to Perth Prison. The Commissioners thought that the Secretary of State should be empowered to remove Scottish criminal lunatics and those Scottish lunatics whose sentences had expired to Perth General Prison to be afterwards sent to district lunatic asylums.

Dr. John Sibbald, the Deputy Commissioner in lunacy for Scotland (pp. 79-94), explained the law relating to criminal lunatics in Scotland. It was the general aim of the Scottish law to avoid treating anyone as a criminal lunatic unless it was necessary for public welfare to do so. The total number of lunatics in Scotland at that time was about 10,000. There was accommodation for 60 criminal lunatics at Perth Prison but an extension had been almost completed, which could accommodate an additional 30. There were also certified lunatic wards in poor-houses in Scotland.