Mentally Ill Man in Jail

Though most insane patients were restrained in earlier times, by the late 1800s/early 1900s, restraints were much more prevalent in the U.S. than in England. This was partially due to a real philosophical difference as to what was best for the patient.

U.S. asylum superintendents believed (generally) that Americans’ free spirits made them more violent patients than Europeans. They considered it a sounder practice to restrain patients so they couldn’t harm themselves or others. They also felt that attendants who had to subdue an unrestrained patient who suddenly became violent, were likelier to hurt the person in their efforts to restrain him.

In 1875 Dr. (Lord) John Bucknill, a British asylum superintendent, visited nearly a dozen U.S. insane asylums. He wrote that Americans overused restraints “despite their highest motives of humanity” in his Notes on Asylums for the Insane in America, published in 1876.

A study in 1885 showed that in 26 U. S. asylums housing nearly 14,000 patients, restraints were used on patients over 5,000 times in one month. The study also showed that (typically) one U.S. asylum used more restraints than all of Britain’s asylums put together.

Leg Irons

Straitjacket

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