Asylum Ward, New York, 1866, courtesy History of Disability in America

One of the best reasons reformers gave for creating asylums was that the insane were often housed in jails despite having committed no crime. With this argument, reformers in the 1830s pleaded for more humane places (and ways) to treat people who were merely sick rather than criminal. For a period, patients likely reaped the benefit of this new stance; they were taken from prisons and punitive treatments and given the rest, wholesome food, and attention they needed to get well. Then, conditions changed.

Sometime in the 1870s, a female patient named Adeline Lunt gave her perspective on asylums. In discussing the so-called convalescent galleries, which had a pleasant appearance to visitors, Lunt said: “To-night that lady will be bound, chest, arms, hands, will be compressed, tied into a sleeved corset . . . ” When the miserable woman doesn’t sleep well as a result, Lunt said, her attendants report that she has had no sleep and the patient is consequently locked into the building the next day.

Types of Restraining Devices

In Lunt’s opinion, patients were detained far too long, merely against the possibility that something negative could happen to them or that they might do something risky. However, the detention itself could bring apathy, hopelessness, or an inability to function. In her words, there should be a dictionary entry that said:

Restrained Female Patient, courtesy LIFE

“Insane Asylum. A place where insanity is made.”