Chap. 214.—An ACT to establish a State farm for defective misdemeanants on
the Powhatan side of the State prison farm or other place; to define the
classes of defective misdemeanants to be transferred thereto; to provide for
the location, construction, government thereof; to provide for the allowance
and anticipation of the per diem costs of jail inmates and for the trans-
portation of prisoners there. [S B 169}

Approved March 19, 1926.

1. .Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia as follows:

Section 1. Subject to the provisions hereinafter contained, there
is hereby established a State prison farm for defective misdemeanants
for the detention and care of defective misdemeanants, including the
tubercular, the venereal, the drug addicts, the inebriates, the psycho-
pathic personalities and recidivists and other persons mentally or
physically defective who cannot be worked on the road forces.

Section 2. The board of directors of the penitentiary, known as
the State prison board, shall have control of the government and
direction and management of the State farm for defective misde-
meanants.

Section 3. The State prison board shall proceed, with all reason-
able dispatch, to establish on the Powhatan side of the existing State
prison farm, or at such other suitable place, or places, as may be ac-
quired by said State prison board, with the approval of the governor
a State farm for defective misdemeanants. The board shall erect,
or cause to be erected, all necessary buildings and structures, plain
and inexpensive in character, and equip the same. (Whenever the
word ‘“‘board’”’ is hereafter used in this act it shall be construed to
mean the State prison board unless the context indicates otherwise.)
The board may, if it finds it practicable and economical, use prison
labor either from the jails, in the manner hereafter set forth, or from
the penitentiary or branch prisons thereof, or enter into contract
with responsible bidders, in the construction of said buildings.

Section 4. The board, with the approval of the governor, shall
decide when it is feasible and expedient to transfer prisoners to said
farm and shall decide what types of defective misdemeanants, and
what number shall be transferred to said farm and shall transfer such
prisoners in the manner and under the same conditions as prescribed
by section two thousand and seventy-five of the Code.

Section 5. Every county and city of the Commonwealth shall be
entitled to the service of said farm, on the basis of its proportion of
population to the population of the whole State, or to the extent of
the full capacity of said farm; provided, that where there are vacancies
in the allotment of any county or city, such vacancy may be tem-
porarily filled by the board from another county or city in the manner
above provided. If two or more such farms are established, the
board, with the approval of the governor, shall determine what sec-
tions of the State shall be served by each, in which event the prisoners
shall be received in the above described manner.

Section 6. It shall be the duty of the board of health to transmit
to the superintendent of the said farm the names and records of all
venereal and tubercular prisoners reported pursuant to section fifteen
hundred and forty-six, of the Code of Virginia.

Section 7. It shall be the duty of the board of public welfare to
transmit to the superintendent of said farm the names and records of
all recidivists reported subject to the provisions of section twenty-
eight hundred and seventy-one, of the Code of Virginia.

Section 8. Whenever a circuit or corporation court, police justice,
or justice of the peace shall have reason to believe that a person con-
victed by or before it or him of a misdemeanor, and then under
sentence to serve, or is serving a jail sentence, has previously been
convicted of a misdemeanor three or more times, and is so mentally
deficient as to be unable to control his or her behavior, said court or
justice shall proceed in the manner provided by section ten hundred
and seventy-nine of the Code of Virginia, to determine the mentality
of such person. And the name and record of such person, if he or she
be found mentally deficient and unable to control his or her behavior,
shall be by said court or justice forwarded to the superintendent of
said farm.

And whenever such court or justice shall have reason to believe
that a person convicted by or before it or him of a misdemeanor, and
then under sentence to serve, or is serving a jail sentence, is afflicted
with any contagious or infectious disease dangerous to the public
health, said court or justice shall proceed to have such person examined
by the physician of the jail to which such person is committed, or in
which he or she is then confined. And if when so examined such
person be found afflicted with such disease, said court or justice shall
forward his or her name and record to the superintendent of said farm.

Section 9. It shall be the duty of all superintendents of State
hospitals for the insane and feebleminded colonies to transmit to the
superintendent of said farm the names and records of all misdemean-
ant inmates whose mental condition is sufficiently good to enable
them to be detained at said farm, in order that their beds may be
released for the more acute non-misdemeanant mental cases, and
when so transferred a per diem allowance of sixty cents shall be
allowed out of the criminal fund.

Section 10. Whenever, in the opinion of the superintendent and
board of directors of the Virginia Industrial School for Boys, and the
Virginia Manual Labor School for Colored Boys, a ward of their school
is dangerous to the morals of the school because of his behavior and
advanced age, he may, with the consent of the superintendent of the
State prison farm for defective misdemeanants be transferred to said
farm, and when so transferred a per diem allowance of sixty cents
shall be allowed out of the criminal fund.

Section 11. The governor may, upon the recommendation of the
board of public welfare, transfer any defective jail inmate within the
Commonwealth to the State prison farm for defective misdemeanants
in a case of emergency or necessity.

Section 12. Nothing in this act shall be construed as to interfere
with the present selection of jail prisoners by the State convict road
force, or other forces that may be provided by law.

Section 13. In order to provide funds for the establishment of
the State prison farm for defective misdemeanants, the board shall
receive the per diem allowances for the several prisoners that shall be
transferred that would be allowed were they to remain in the several
jails from which they are transferred, which, with the approval of the
governor, may be anticipated in advance from the treasury to an
amount not in excess of the average per capita allowance for all jail
prisoners during the past year based on the maximum capacity of the
proposed institution for the first year of its operation; provided,
further, that the board may use any unused, available funds out- of
its genera] appropriation, or any funds, materials, lands, equipment
that may secure without obligation on the State whether from private
or public sources.

Section 14. The government and control of the State prison farm
for defective misdemeanants shall be vested in the State prison board,
which shall appoint a superintendent, necessary officials, guards, em-
ployees; provided, however, that nothing in this act shall prevent the
use of any present officials, guards, employees already employed by
said board at the State prison farm or elsewhere. The board shall
make all necessary rules and regulations for the discipline, employ-
ment, care and treatment of the prisoners, their food, quarters, and
clothing. The hygienic care and sanitation of the prisoners shall be
under the direction, supervision and regulation of the State board of
health. It shall be the general purpose of the said State prison farm
for defective misdemeanants to provide proper employment, medical
and mental care and treatment, discipline and control of prisoners
committed thereto, and all prisoners infected with dangerous com-
municable or contagious diseases shall not be discharged until the
period of contagion has passed, regardless of the length of sentence,
provided that no one shall be held for a period longer than a year on
the original commitment. Any prisoner who shall escape from the
said farm shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and may be sentenced by
a justice of the peace, upon conviction therefor, for an additional
period of not less than thirty days nor more than six months. All
transportation costs shall be paid out of the general criminal accounts
fund of the treasury as at present provided by law, provided, however,
that nothing in this act shall prohibit the use of the present system of
transporting prisoners employed by the penitentiary or branch prisons
thereof, State convict road force, industrial schools, State board of
public welfare or other State agencies engaged in the transportation
of prisoners.