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During the 1900’s the Mounted Police were called upon to become temporary custodians for what nineteenth century society called “lunatics”.  
 
Lunatics were people considered so mentally deranged as to be classified “Insane” requiring commitment to a prison or a Lunatic Asylum.  
 
The assessment process started when information was presented to a Justice of the Peace, (J.P.) effectively proving that a person was insane.  
 
The J. P. would order a Mounted Policeman to place the person into custody, and an inquiry would be launched into the prisoner’s mental condition.  
 
When insanity was proven the J. P. would be empowered to commit the person into custody indefinitely at the pleasure of the Lieutenant Governor until the persons condition was cured.  
 
Most of the Lunatics from the NWT (Alberta, and Saskatchewan) were sent with a Mounted Police escort to the Brandon Asylum in Manitoba where they were kept at the expense of the Federal government.  
 
In 1900 there was on average per day 135 Lunatics from the NWT in custody at the Brandon Asylum.  
 
At first most insane people were in the custody of the Mounted Police for only a few hours to a few days until their fate was determined by the J. P..  
 
Then when found insane, they were escorted by a Mounted Policeman on the train to Brandon for commitment.  
 
This short period of responsibility towards these sick individuals did not always run smoothly. On one occasion in 1896 in the vicinity of Edmonton, a man who had been judged insane was taken into custody, and committed to the Brandon Asylum. After the Mounted Police had arrested this man they found him extremely violent, but during the several days after his arrest he refused all food, and would not sleep.  
 
On the train to Brandon he became very weak, and was removed from the train at Calgary for treatment by the Post Doctor in the “E” Division guardroom, but he died anyway.  
 
Source: Red Coats on the Prairies by William Beahen and Stan Horrall