Chap. 273.—An ACT in relation to the government of the negro reformatory
association of Virginia, and to the commitment, government, employment,
and discharge of negro minors committed thereto, and providing compen-
sation to be paid by the commonwealth for caring for such minors.

Approved February 5, 1900. |

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the negro
reformatory association of Virginia shall have power in furtherance of
its object to establish and conduct anywhere within the limits of the
commonwealth houses of correction, reformatories, industrial schools,
work-houses, or other institutions of like aim and character, as it may
deem advisable, and, in its discretion, to receive into them such negro
children and youth as may be committed to its charge by the voluntary
written surrender of their parents or other persons having the legal
right to their custody and control, and also such children and youth and
other persons as may be lawfully committed to its charge by the courts
and magistrates of the commonwealth.

2. Said association shall have power, during the period it has legal
custody of any persons so committed to its charge, to bind out such per-
sons, during their minority, as apprentices or servants to such persons,
at such places, and for such emplovment as will in the judgment of the
appropriate officers or agents of said association be most conducive to
the reformation and real advantage of such minors.

3. Said association shall have power to make and to enforce such
lawful constitutions, by-laws, and regulations for the management and
disposition of the affairs and estate of the association, and for the man-
agement, control, instruction, and employment of the persons committed
to its custody as it may deem proper, and to appoint and empower such
officers, agents, and servants as it may deem necessary for the efficient
transaction of all the business of the association, and may designate
their respective duties.

4. It shall be the duty of said association to make reports of its work
to the general assembly of Virginia, at the regular sessions thereof, em-
bracing in said report such information and recommendations as it may
deem best calculated to aid the general assembly in improving and per-
fecting the laws touching matters within the scope of the purpose and
work of the association.

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 dis-
cretion of such court, judge or justice, with the consent of the negro
reformatory association of Virginia, to direct that such minor convicted
shall be committed to the custody and control of the said the negro
reformatory association of Virginia, and said association shall have the
same power and authority over anv such minors as the proper authori-
ties of the state penitentiary now have with regard to the persons com-
mitted to it, and shall be entitled upon the certificate of the judge of
Hanover county to the same compensation for caring for them which
the jailors of this commonwealth were entitled to for the same num-
ber of persons January first, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight: pro-
vided, that at no time shall the commonwealth be charged ‘with the
care of more than one hundred of said negro minors: provided, how-
ever, that no minor so convicted and committed to said association as a
vagrant or disorderly person shall be held or detained by said associa-
tion for a longer period than eighteen months from the date of such
conviction, and that no minor convicted of a misdemeanor shall be com-
mitted to said association for a period shorter than two nor longer than
three vears from the date of such conviction, and no minor convicted
of a felony shall be committed to the said association for a period
shorter than three nor longer than five years from the date of such
conviction: and provided further, that in all cases of conviction by a
justice, where an appeal lies to a higher court, other than cases where
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 mav be taken from the action of the Justice before whom such
conviction is had at anv time within fifteen davs from the date of such
conviction: and provided further, that said the negro reformatory
association of Virginia shall have the right to discharge any minor com-
mitted to it at anv time when in the judgment of the proper author-
ities of said association such discharge will be to the best interest of
sald minor. |
It shall be the duty of every judge. court or magistrate who shall
commit any negro minor to the custody of said association 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 commitment, it shall become its duty to send a proper
ollicer or guard to receive or take charge of said minor, who shall be re-
garded as in the legal custody of said association from the time of being
delivered to such officer or guard; and the proper traveling and 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 saic¢
association that more than one officer or guard was necessary, and the
reasons therefor.

7. No person shall be committed to or received into the custody o
said the negro reformatory association of Virginia after such persor
shall have reached the age of seventeen vears, or be held by or detain
in the custody of said association after such person shall have reache:
the age of twenty-one vears.

Jurisdiction of all habeas corpus and other proceedings to test th
right of said the negro reformatory association of Virginia to retan
custody of such minors as shall be committed or surrendered or receiver
into its custody shall be had exclusively before the judge of the circu:
court of the citv of Richmond, in term time or vacation: provided, tha
in the ahsence of the said judge from said city such proceedings shat
be had before the judge of the law and equity court.

8. If any person committed to the custody of the negro reformator
association of Vi reimia shall escape or attempt to escape therefrom, suc]
person, upon the complaint of the proper authorities of said associatior
shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by con-
finement in jail not exceeding six months; at the expiration of which
term of imprisonment such person may, with the consent of said asso-
ciation, be recommitted to the custody thereof.

9. If any person induce or assist a minor in the custody of said asso-
ciation to escape therefrom, or knowingly harbor such minor after such
escape, such person shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five hun-
dred dollars and by confinement in jail not exceeding six months.

10. 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 said association, any persons who
may have escaped from its custody.

11. The governor of the commonwealth shall have the right and
authority to pardon minors convicted and committed to the custody and
control of the negro reformatory association of Virginia, and to release
them from such custody and control: provided, it shall be made to ap-
pear that the case is a proper one for the exercise of executive clemency,
and that the said the negro reformatory 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
davs after such application has been made.

12. In all cases where a minor is committed to the custody and con-
trol of the negro reformatory association of Virginia, upon the ground
that such minor is a disorderly person or vagrant, it shall be the duty
of the court, judge, or justice making such commitment, after notice
to the parent or other person legallv liable for the support and main-
tenance of such minor, to inquire whether or not such parent or other
person is able to support and maintain such minor; and if it be found
that such parent or other person is able to support and maintain such
minor, in whole or in part, then such court, judge, or Justice shall enter
an order that such parent or other person legally liable, as aforesaid, pay
to the treasurer of the negro reformatory association of Virginia toward
the support and maintenance of such minor, such sum monthly, not
exceeding eight dollars per month, as shall under all circumstances he
just and equitable, which order, until set aside upon proper proof, shall
stand as a continuing judgment, and be enforcible and collectible as are
other judgments of the said court, judge, or justice: provided, that anv
money realized by such proceedings shall to that extent go to the relicf
of the commonwealth from any liability or obligation for the support
and maintenance of any minor whose parent or other person liable for
his support and maintenance shall have contributed thereto.

13. Sections thirty-seven hundred and fiftv-two, thirty-seven hundred
and fifty three, thirty-seven hundred and fifty-four, thirty-seven hun-
dred and fifty-five, thirty-seven hundred and fifty-six, thirty-seven hun-
dred and fiftv-seven of the code of Virginia shall be construed to em-
lbrace and apply to persons in the custody of the said association, to the
buildings of said association, and to the officers of its schools and other
institutions as fully and to the same effect as said sections now embrace
and apply to the persons in custodv and to the prisons, prisoners, jails,
jailors, and other officers in said sections expressly mentioned,
1 a acts and parts of acts inconsistent herewith are hereby re-
pealec

15. The said the negro reformatory association of Virginia shall be
governed and controlled by the following board of trustees—to wit:
James Caskie, E. 'T. D. Myers, Andrew H. Christian, L. L. Lewis, Joseph
Bryan, John IL. Williams, John P. Branch, B. L. Winston, George P.
Haw, C. P. Huntington, H. B. Frissell, John H. Smyth, D. N. Vassar.
J. Wesley Johnson, 8. H. Shackleford, William B. Lyons, and Joseph E
Jones. And said board shall serve until their successors shall be ap-
pointed by the general assembly, and shall have power to fill suct
vacancies as may occur during the recess of the general assembly.

16. This act shall be in force from its passage.