The UndesirablesThrough the early twentieth century, the British Government locked away over 50,000 innocent people. Their crimes? Being poor and unyielding. This is their story. Staggering Wise's book bristles with injustices. Sunday Telegraph, * By 1950, an estimated 50,000 people had been deemed defective by the British government and detained indefinitely under the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act. Their crimes were various: women with children born out of wedlock;