Chap. 60.—An ACT in relation to the commitment of minors to the Prison Asso-
ciation of Virginia, their custody therein, the compensation for, and expenses
of, such custody, and their discharge therefrom.

Approved March 8, 1904.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That whenever
any minor, charged with any crime or with being a vagrant ora dis-
orderly person, or incorrigible, is arrested or convicted, it shall be lawful
for the court, judge, or justice causing the arrest, or before whom the
conviction is had, in the discretion of such court, judge, or justice, with
the consent of the Prison Association of Virginia, to direct that the
minor arrested or convicted, as the case may be, shall be committed to
the custody and control of the said Prison Association of Virginia; and
the said association shall have the same power and authority over such
minor as the proper authorities of the State penitentiary now have with
regard to persons committed to it, and shall be entitled, upon the certifi-
cate of the judge of the circuit court of Henrico couty, to the same com-
pensation for caring for them which the jailors of the Commonwealth
were entitled to, for the same number of persons, January first, eighteen
hundred and ninety-eight: provided, however, that no minor shall be
committed to the custody and control of the said association before con-
viction without the consent of the parent or legal guardian of said minor,
if any such there be.

2. Age of commitment; sentence indeterminate; custody ends with
minority ; right of association to discharge minor.—A minor may be com-
mitted to the custody of the Prison Association of Virginia up to the
time such minor ‘shall have attained the age of eighteen years, but not
after, and in the order of commitment the committing court, judge, or
justice shall state that he is satisfied from the evidence that such minor
has not yet attained the age of eighteen years. All commitments of
minors to the custody of said association shall be for an indeterminate
period: provided, however, that no person committed to said association
shall be held or detammed by it after attaining the age of twenty-one
years: and provided, that the said association shall have the right to
grant to any minor committed to it an absolute discharge, or a discharge
conditioned upon good behavior, at any time when, in the judgment of
the proper authorities of the said association, as designated by it, such
absolute or conditional discharge would be to the best interests of the
said minor or of the said association: provided, further, that the said
association shall have the right to rearrest such minor and to hold or
detain him in its custody if he shall violate any of the terms or condi-
tions of his conditional discharge.

3. Association to be notified when minor committed to it and to send
for minor; expenses, how paid.—It shall be the duty of every court,
judge, or justice who shall commit any minor to the custody of the said
Prison Association of Virginia, first to notify the said association, or its
appropriate officer, that said minor will be so committed with the assent
of said association, and if said association shall assent to said’ commit-
ment, it shall become its duty to send a proper officer or guard to receive
and take charge of said minor, who shall be regarded as in the legal cus-
tody of said association from the time of being delivered to such officer
or guard; and the proper traveling or other expenses of such officer or
guard and of such minor shall be allowed and paid by the auditor of
public accounts, but the expenses of only one such officer or guard in
each case shall be so allowed and paid, unless upon the certificate of the
president, or other chief officer of said association, that more than one
officer or guard was necessary, and the reasons therefor.

4. To: prevent escapes from the custody of the Prison Association of
Virginia.—If any person induce or assist a minor in the custody of the
Prison Association of Virginia to escape therefrom, or knowingly harbor
such minor after such escape, such person shall be punished by a fine not
exceeding five hundred dollars or by confinement in jail not exceeding
six months, or both, in the discretion of the court.

It shall be the duty of all officers throughout the Commonwealth
having the power to arrest, including police officers in cities, to appre-
hend in their respective counties and corporations without process, and
to deliver to the proper authorities of the Prison Association of Virginia
any minor who may have escaped from its custody, or have violated, as
above set forth, the terms and conditions of his conditional discharge.

That sections thirty-seven hundred and fifty-two, thirty-seven hundred
and fifty-three, thirty-seven hundred and fifty-four, thirty-seven hundred
and fifty-five, thirty-seven hundred and fifty-six, and thirty-seven hun-
dred and fifty-seven of the Code of Virginia shall be construed to em-
brace and apply to minors in the custody of the Prison Association of
Virginia, to the buildings of said association, and to the officers of ite
school and other institutions, as freely and to the same-effect as said sec-
tions now embrace and apply to the persons in the custody and to the
prisons, prisoners, jails, jailors, and other officers in said sections espe-
cially mentioned.

5. Jurisdictions of proceedings to test the right of prison association
to custody of minor.—Jurisdiction of all habeas corpus and other pro-
ceedings to test the right of said Prison Association, of Virginia to retair
custody of such minors as shall be committed or surrendered or receivec
into its custody shall be had exclusively before the circuit court of the
city of Richmond, or the judge thereof in vacation: provided, that in
the absence of said judge from said city such proceedings shall be had
before the law and equity court of the city of Richmond, or the judge
thereof in vacation.

6. Pardoning power of governor.—The governor of the Common-
wealth shall have the right and authority to pardon minors committed
to the custody and control of the Prison Association of Virginia, and to
release them from such custody and control: provided, it shall be made
to appear that the case is a proper one for the exercise of executive
clemency, and that the said Prison Association of Virginia, upon proper
application made to it, has refused to discharge said minor, or has failed
to act upon the application for such discharge within thirty days after
such application has been made.

?. All enactments concerning the Prison Association of Virginia
standing upon the statute books of the Commonwealth at the date this
act takes effect are hereby repealed, save and except an act entitled “an
act to incorporate the Prison Association of Virginia,” approved March
third, eighteen hundred and ninety, as amended and re-enacted by an
act approved March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, entitled
“an, act to amend and re-enact section three of an act entitled ‘an act to
incorporate the Prison Association of Virginia,’ approved March third,
eighteen hundred and ninety,” which two last-mentioned statutes are to
be found, respectively, in acts of assembly of eighteen hundred and
eighty-nine-eighteen hundred and ninety, page seven hundred and forty-
one, and acts of assembly of eighteen hundred and ninety-one-eighteen
hundred and ninety-two, page nine hundred and eighty-five and together
constitute the charter of said Prison Association of Virginia.

But no such repeal shall work a release or discharge, or in any way
affect the custody of any minor committed to the Prison Association of
Virginia, and detained therein under any act heretofore in force; but
all commitments made under any such act shall remain in as full force
and effect as if no such repeal had been made; nor shall anything in this
section apply to or affect any act concerning any appropriation to the
Prison Association of Virginia from the public revenues of the Com-
monwealth. :