Chap. 62.—An ACT to authorize the superintendent of the Virginia peniten-
tiary to lease or purchase a farm and to erect thereon suitable buildings for
the care and employment of convicts.

Approved January 22, 1894.

Whereas the cells of the Virginia penitentiary are greatly over-
crowded, there being less than two hundred cells for over twelve
hundred male convicts; and whereas several hundred of the con-
victs are unfit for service in the prison, but could be made useful in
the cultivation of a farm: therefore,

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the
superintendent of the Virginia penitentiary be, aud he is hereby,
authorized, with the approval of the board of directors and the gov-
ernor, to purchase or lease a farm with the option of purchase, and
erect thereon suitable buildings and stockades for the care and employ-
ment of convicts unfit for service in the penitentiary, or who, for
sanitary or other reasons, should be removed therefrom, and to pur-
chase such stock and implements, seeds, supplies and materials as
may be needed for the cultivation of the same, or for such other
work as the board of directors and superintendent may deem expe-
dient: provided that such farm shall be easily accessible to the
penitentiary by water or rail.

2. There shall be a surgeon for said farm, appointed by the gov-
ernor, whose compensation shall be at the rate of fifty dollars per
month; a manager, appointed by the governor, on the recommenda-
tion of the superintendent, whose compensation shall be fifty dol-
lars per month and board, and who shall have charge of the culti-
vation of the farm, and shal] perform such other duties as may be
assigned him, all under the direction of the superintendent; and
such guards as may be necessary, appointed by the superintendent ;
their compensation shall be twenty dollars per month and their
board.

3. All laws for the government of the penitentiary ‘shall be in
force on said farm, so far as applicable, and the same discipline
enforced there as in the penitentiary.

4, The superintendent shall, at the end of each fiscal year, make
out a general account between the state and farm for such year,
charging the latter with the value of the stock, tools, implements,
materials and supplies, including provisions and clothing on hand at
the commencement of the year, and the cost of the same bought
during the year, the salaries of officers and guards, and all other
expenses of the farm; and crediting it with work done by the con-
victs on the buildings and permanent fixtures on the farm, the value
of the stock, tools, implements, and so forth, on hand at the end of
the year, the value of all products furnished the penitentiary, all
moneys received for sale of such products, and all other debits and
credits necessary to show a true account of the farm with the state.

5. All costs of lease or purchase, erection of buildings, pay of
manager, Surgeon and guards, and other expenses of said farm shal]
oe paid out of the net earnings of the penitentiary by warrants
drawn on the treasury, as prescribed in section forty-one hundred and
sixty-four of the code of eighteen hundred and eighty-seven: pro-
vided that the costs of the lease or purchase and erection of build-
ings shall not exceed twenty-five thousand dollars.

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