Chap. 197.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Sections 1, 4, 5 and 6 of Chapter 218,
Acts of 1942, approved March 13, 1942, relating to probation and parole in
Virginia. [H 203]

Approved March 11, 1944

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That sections one, four, five and six of chapter two hundred
eighteen, Acts nineteen hundred forty-two, approved March thirteenth,
nineteen hundred forty-two, be amended and re-enacted, as follows:

Section 1. Parole Board; creation, appointment, terms, compensa-
tion, quorum and meetings.—(a) There is hereby created in the Execu-
tive Department of the State a Parole Board, to be known as the Virginia
Parole Board. The Parole Board shall consist of three members appointed
by the Governor subject to confirmation by the General Assembly, if in
session when appointment is made, and if not in session, then at its next
succeeding session.

(b) Of the members first appointed one shall be appointed for a
term of two years, one for a term of four years and one for a term of six
years. Thereafter all appointments to the Parole Board shall be for terms
of six years, except appointments to fill vacancies which shall be made for
the unexpired terms. The members of the Parole Board shall be subject
to suspension or removal by the Governor in his discretion.

(c) The Governor shall designate one of the members so appointed
as Director of Parole. Of the members first appointed, the one appointed
for the term of six years shall be so designated. The Director of Parole
shall devote his full time to the performance of his duties as such, and
shall serve as chairman of the Parole Board. The Board may elect one
of its members or some other person to act as secretary of the Board.

(d) The Director of Parole shall receive a salary of six thousand
dollars ($6,000.00) a year, and the necessary traveling and other ex-
penses incurred by him in the performance of his duties. The other mem-
bers of the Parole Board shall be paid their necessary traveling and other
expenses incurred in attendance upon meetings and while otherwise
engaged in the discharge of their duties, and in addition thereto each
member shall be entitled to the sum of fifteen dollars a day for each day
or portion thereof during which he is engaged in the performance of his
duties as a member of the Parole Board, subject to the condition that no
member of the Parole Board shall be paid such per diem for more than
two hundred days in the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hun-
dred forty-three, and for the fiscal year beginning July one, nineteen
hundred forty-four, and for every year thereafter the per diem members
of the Board shall not receive the per diem for more than two hundred
davs in a fiscal year.
Section +. Probation and parole officers; appointment, terms of
office, compensation and removal.—(a) The Parole Board shall divide
the State ito as many separate parole districts as it deems necessarv
or desirable effectually to carry out the purpose of this act, and may
change, from time to time, the area embraced in any parole district to
conform to circumstances, conditions, needs, and demands as they arise
or develop. There shall be at least one probation and parole officer for
each parole district. When the area of any district lies solely in counties
and cities comprising a single judicial circuit, the officer or officers shall
be appointed by the judge of the circuit. When the area of a parole dis-
trict lies in counties located partly in two or more judicial circuits, the
probation and parole officers shall be appointed by the joint action of the
judges of the several circuits. If there are more than two such judges, a
majority vote shall control the appointment. When the area of a parole
district lies partly in counties comprising part of a judicial circuit and
partly in a city having a corporation or hustings court, the appointment
shall be made by the joint action of the circuit and corporation or hustings
court judges with a majority vote controlling. When a parole district lies
wholly within a city, the appointment shall be made by the judge or
judges of the corporation or hustings court or courts, a majority of the
judges controlling the appointment. Whenever the appointment is to be
made by two judges and they fail to agree upon an appointee, or fail to
notify the Director of Parole that any list of eligible persons submitted
to him is unsatisfactory, after the expiration of sixty days from the time
the list was submitted the Board shall appoint the probation and parole
officer for the district involved.

(b) Such appointments shall be made from lists of eligible persons
submitted by the Director of Parole, but if any list submitted is unsatis-
factory to the judge or judges, or a majority of them having the appoint-
ing power, the Director of Parole shall, at his or their request, submit
additional lists containing the names of additional eligible persons until
an appointment satisfactory to the judge or judges may be made. At least
two of the names contained in each list shall be names of persons resident
in the district for which the appointment is to be made.

(c) Each probation and parole officer shall be appointed for a term
of four years, unless the appointment be to fill a vacancy, in which case
the appointment shall be for the unexpired term. Any such officer may
be suspended or removed at the pleasure of the judge or judges having
the appointing power.

(d) Each probation and parole officer appointed pursuant to the
provisions of this section shall devote his full time to the performance of
lis duties as such officer and shall receive as compensation for his services
a salary to be fixed in accordance with the standards of classification of
the State Personnel Act.

Each probation and parole offcer shall also be paid all necessary
traveling and other expenses incurred by him in the discharge of his
duties hereunder, not to exceed, however, one thousand dollars during any
fiscal year. The salary and expenses herein provided for shall be paid bv
the State and no part shall be paid by or chargeable to any county or city.
except as hereinafter provided.

(e) Nothing in this act shall be taken to limit the powers of any
court to appoint probation officers pursuant to the provisions of chapter
three hundred forty-nine of the Acts of nineteen hundred eighteen, as
amended, nor to limit the powers or duties of such courts under that act or
those of the probation officers appointed thereunder.

(f) Upon request of the governing body of a county, city or town
the probation and parole officer shall perform the same duties and have
the same powers as to persons convicted for violations of ordinances of
the county, city or town as he has as to persons violating laws of the
State, but the county, city or town so using the services of such probation
and parole officer shall pay a pro rata part of his expenses to be arrived at
by mutual agreement between the local governing body and the Parole
Board. |

Section 5. Functions, powers and duties of probation and parole
officers.—In addition to other functions, powers and duties prescribed by
this act, each probation and parole officer shall

(1) Investigate and report on any case pending in any court or be-
fore any justice in his jurisdiction referred to him by the court or justice ;

(2) Supervise and assist all persons within his territory placed on
probation, and furnish every such person with a written statement of the
conditions of his probation and instruct him therein ;

(3) Supervise and assist all persons within his territory released on
parole ;

(5) Arrest, and recommit to the place of confinement from which
he was released, or in which he would have been confined but for the
suspension of his sentence or of its imposition, for violation of the terms
of probation or parole, any probationer or parolee under his supervision,
or as directed by the Director of Parole, or the court, pending a hearing
by the Parole Board or the court, as the case may be:

(6) Keep such records, make such reports, and perform such other
duties as are required of him by the Director and by the rules and regu-
lations prescribed by the Parole Board, and such as are required of him
by the court or judge by whom he was appointed.

Provided that nothing in this act shall be considered as requiring
the investigation or supervision of cases before juvenile and domestic re-
lations courts under provisions of chapter seventy-eight of the Code of
Virginia.

Section 6. Eligibility for Parole—(a) Except as herein otherwise
provided, every person convicted, either heretofore or hereafter, of a
felony, and sentenced and committed under the laws of this Common-
wealth to the State Penitentiary, the State Penitentiary Farm, the State
Industrial Farm for Women, or the Southampton Penitentiary Farm,
or any of the State Convict Road camps, and any subsidiary institution,
if a part of the major penal system, shall be eligible for parole after
serving one-third of the term of imprisonment imposed, after serving
twelve consecutive years of the term of imprisonment imposed if one-
third of the term of imprisonment imposed is more than twelve years.
In the case of terms of imprisonment to be served consecutively, the
total time imposed shall constitute the term of imprisonment; in the
case of terms of imprisonment to be served concurrently, the longest
term imposed shall be the term of imprisonment.

(b) Persons sentenced to die or to life imprisonment shall not be
eligible for parole.