Chap. 389.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11,
12, 13 and 14 of chapter 214 of the acts of assembly of 1926, entitled 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 defec-
tive misdemeanants to be transferred thereto; to provide for the location,
construction, government thereof; to provide for the allowance and anticipa-
tion of the per diem costs of jail inmates and for the transportation of pris-
oners there, approved March 19, 1926, and to enlarge the same to include
any other misdemeanants, and felons. [H B 97]

Approved March 25, 1930

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sections
one, two, three, four, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen and four.
teen of chapter two hundred and fourteen of the acts of assembly of!
nineteen hundred and twenty-six, entitled an act to establish a State
farm for defective misdemeanants on the Powhatan side of the Stat
prison farm or other place; to define the classes of defective misde.
meanants to be transferred thereto; to provide for the location, con.
struction, government thereof; to provide for the allowance and an
ticipation of the per diem costs of jail inmates and for the transporta-
tion of prisoners there, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as
follows: :

Section 1. Subject to the provisions hereinafter contained, there
is hereby established a State prison farm for defective misdemeanant:
and other farm or farms for the detention and care of defective mis-
demeanants, including the tubercular, venereal, the drug addicts, the
inebriates, the psychopathic personalties, and recidivists and other per-
sons mentally or physically defective who cannot be worked on the
road force, and any other misdemeanants and felons who may be com-
mitted thereto or transferred thereto as provided by law.

Section 2. The board of directors of the penitentiary, known as
the State prison board, shall have control of the government and direc-
tion and management of the State farm for defective misdemeanants,
and other farm or farms established under authority of this act.

Section 3. The State prison board shall proceed, with all rea-
sonable dispatch, to establish on the Powhatan side of the existing
State prison farm, or at such other suitable place, or places, as may be
acquired by said State prison board, with the approval of the governor,
a State farm for defective misdemeanants, and other farm or farms
for the detention and care of misdemeanants or felons as may be com-
mitted or transferred thereto, as provided by law. The board shall
erect, or cause to be erected, all necessary buildings and structures,
plain and inexpensive in character, and equip the same. (Wherever
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 re-
sponsible bidders, in the construction of said buildings.

Section 4. The board, with the approval of the governor, shall de-
cide when it is feasible and expedient to transfer prisoners to said farm
or farms and shall decide what types of defective misdemeanants or
other misdemeanants or felons and what number shall be transferred
to said farm or farms and shall transfer such prisoners in the manner
prescribed by section two thousand and seventy-five of the Code and
section thirty-five hundred and ten of the Code.

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 sen-
fence to serve, or is serving a jail sentence, has previously been con-
victed of a misdemeanor three or more times, and is so mentally de-
ficient as to be unable to control his or her behavior, said court or
justice may proceed in the manner provided by ten hundred and seven-
ty-nine of the Code of Virginia to determine the mentality of such
person. And such person, if he or she be found mentally deficient and
unable to control his or her behavior, may be committed directly to
said State farm for defective misdemeanants or other farm or farms.

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 shall proceed to have such person examined by the physician
of the jail to which such person is or would be committed or in which
he or she is then confined. And if when so examined such person be
afflicted with such disease, said court or justice may commit such per-
son directly to said State farm for defective misdemeanants or other
farm or farms.

Section 9. It shall be the duty of all superintendents of State hos-
pitals for the insane and feeble-minded colonies to transmit to the
superintendent of said State farm for defective misdemeanants or
other farm or farms the names and record of all misdemeanant in-
mates whose mental condition is sufficiently good to enable them to be
detained at said State farm for defective misdemeanants or other farm
or farms, in order that their beds may be released for the more acute
non-misdemeanant mental cases, and when so transferred a per diem
of sixty cents a day 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 School for Colored Boys, a ward of their school is
dangerous to the morale of the school because of his behavior and ad-
vanced age, he may with the consent of the superintendent of the State
prison farm for defective misdemeanants, or other farm or farms, be
transferred to said State farm for defective misdemeanants or other
farm or farms 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
commissioner of public welfare, transfer any jail inmate within the
Commonwealth to the State farm for defective misdemeanants, or other
farm or farms, 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 farm for defective misdemeanants and other farm or farms,
the board shall receive the per diem allowance 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 or institutions for the first yeat
of its operation; provided, further, that the board may use any of its
unused available funds out of general appropriation, or any funds
materials, lands, equipment that it may secure without obligation or
the State whether from private or public sources.

Section 14. The government and control of the State prison farr
for defective misdemeanants and other farm or farms shall be vestec
in the State prison board, which shall appoint a superintendent, o1
superintendents, necessary officials, guards, employees ; provided, how-
ever, that nothing in this act shall prevent the use of any present of-
ficials, guards, employees already employed by the said board at the
State prison farm or elsewhere. The board shall make all necessary
rules and regulations for the discipline, employment, care and treat-
ment of the prisoners, their food, quarters and clothing. The hygienic
care and sanitation of the prisoners shall be under the direction, super-
vision and regulation of the State board of health. It shall be the
general purpose of the said State prison farm for defective misde-
meanants, and other farm or farms, to provide proper employment,
medical and mental care and treatment, discipline and control of pris-
oners committed, or transferred, thereto, and all prisoners infected
with dangerous communicable or contagious diseases shall not be dis-
charged 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, except by an order of
the State department of health, as provided under the health laws.
Any prisoner who shall escape from the said State farm for defective
misdemeanants, or other farm or farms, shall be guilty of a misde-
meanor and may be sentenced by a justice of the peace, or court, upon
conviction therefor, for an additional period of not less than thirty
days nor more than six months. All transportation costs shall be out
of the general criminal accounts fund of the treasury, as at present
provided by law; provided, however, that nothing in this act shall pro-
hibit the use of the present system of transporting employed by the
penitentiary or branch prisons thereof, State convict road force, in-
dustrial schools, State board of public welfare or other State agencies
engaged in the transportation of prisoners.

Z. An emergency existing this act shall be in force from its
passage. :