Chap. 371.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 5 and 7 of an act en-
titled: An act in relation to the government of the Negro Reformatory Associa-
tion of Virginia, and to the commitment, government, employment and
discharge of negro minors committed thereto, and providing compensation to
be paid by the Commonwealth, for the caring for such minors, approved Febru-
ary 5, 1900.

Approved March 14, 1908.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sections
five and seven of an act entitled “an act in relation to the government of
the negro 1eformatory association of Virginia, and to the commitment,
government, employment and discharge of negro minors committed there-
tv, and providing compensation to be paid by the Commonwealth, for
the caring for such minors, approved February fifth, nineteen hundred,”
be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§5. Whenever any negro minor charged with any crime, or with being
a vagrant, or disorderly person is convicted, it shall be lawful for the
court, judge or justice before whom the conviction is had, in the discre-
tion of such court, judge or justice, with the consent of the negro re-
formatory association of Virginia, to direct that such minor convicted
shall be committed to the custody and control of the said negro reforma-
tory association of Virginia, and said association shall have the same
power and authority over any such minors as the proper authorities of
the State penitentiary now have with regard to the persons committed to
it, and shall be entitled, upon the certificate of the judge of the circuit
court for the county of Hanover, to the same compensation for caring
for them which the jailers of this Commonwealth were entitled to for
the same number of persons January first, eighteen hundred and ninety-
eight: provided, that at no time shall the Commonwealth be charged
with the care of more than one hundred and fifty of said negro minors:
and provided further, that in all cases of conviction by a justice where
an appeal lies to a higher court, other than cases whee such minor is
committed to the said association at the request, or with the consent of
the parent or legally qualified guardian of such minor, an appeal may be
taken from the action of the justice before whom such conviction is had
at any time within fifteen days from the date of such conviction.

§7. A negro minor may be committed to the custody of the negro re-
formatory association of Virginia, up to the time such minor shall have
attained the age of seventeen 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 seventeen 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 retained
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 on 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 interest of the said minor or of the said association:
provided further, that the said association shall have the right to re-
arrest such minor and to hold or detain him in its custody, if he shall
violate any of the terms or conditions of his conditional discharge. Juris-
diction of all habeas corpus and other proceedings to test the right of said
negro reformatory association of Virginia to retain the custody of said
minors, as shall be committed or surrendered or received into its custody
shall be had exclusively before the judge of the circuit court for the city
of Richmond in term time, or vacation: provided, that in the absence
of the said judge of said city, such proceedings shall be had before the
judge of the law and equity court for the city of Richmond.