Chap. 576.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act entitled an act to authorize
certain persons when arrested or convicted to be committed to the custody of
the Prison association of Virginia, approved March 4, 1890, as amended and
re-enacted by an act entitled an act to amend and re-enact section 1 of an act
entitled an act to authorize certain persons when arrested or convicted to be
comnmitted to the custody of the Prison association of Virginia, approved Mareh
3, 1896.

Approved February 28, 1898.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That an act
entitled an act to authorize certain persons when arrested or convicted to
he committed to the custody of the Prison association of Virginia, ap-
proved March the fourth, eighteen hundred and ninety, as amended and
re-enacted by an act entitled an act to amend and re-enact section one of
an act entitled an act to authorize certain persons when arrested or con-
victed to be committed to the custody of the Prison association of Vir-
ginia, approved March the third, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, be,
and the same is hereby, amended and re-enacted so as to read ag fol-
lows :

§ 1. That whenever any minor charged with any crime, or with being
a vagrant or disorderly person, is convicted, it shall he 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 Prison
association of Virginia, to direct that the minor convicted shall be com-
mitted to the custody and control of the said Prison association of Vir-
ginia, and said association shall have the same power and authority over
any such minors as the proper authorities of the state penitentiary now
have with regard to the persons committed to it, and shall be entitled
upon the certificate of the judge of Henrico county to the same com-
pensation for caring for them which the jailers of this conmonwealth
were entitled to for the same number of persons January first, eighteen
hundred and ninety-eight: provided, however, that no minor so con-
victed and committed to said association as a vagrant or disorderly per-
son shall be held or detained by said association for a longer period than
eighteen months from the date of such conviction, and that no minor
convicted of a misdemeanor shall be committed to the said association
for a period shorter than two nor longer than three years from the date
of such conviction, and no minor convicted of a felony shall be com-
mitted 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 lics 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 may be taken from the
action of the justice before w hom such conviction is had at any time
within fifteen days from the date of such conviction: and provided
further, that said Prison association of Virginia shall have the right to
discharge any minor committed to it at any time when in the judgment
of the proper authorities of said association such discharge will be to
the best interests of gard mins.
2. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby re-
pealed.
This act shall be in force from and after the first day of May,
eighteen hundred and ninety-eight.