CHAP. 430.—An ACT to incorporate the Prison Association of
Virginia.

Approved March 3, 1890.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia,
That William B. Williams, George L. Christian, J. Taylor
Ellyson, Richard F. Beirne, Overton Howard, Joseph
Bryan, Thomas 8. Atkins, Adolphus Blair, D. C. Richard-
son, Norman V. Randolph, Archer Anderson, Daniel S.
Morrison, and Robert Stiles, their associates and succes-
sors, be, and they are hereby, constituted a body politic and
corporate by the name and style of the prison association
of Virginia, and under this name and style are hereby
invested with all the powers, rights and privileges con-
ferred, and made subject to all the responsibilities, regu-
lations and restrictions imposed by the common law and
the statutes of this commonwealth upon corporate bodies,
so far as the same may be applicable and appropriate and
not inconsistent with the provisions of this act: provided,
that said association shall not be capable of holding at
any time real estate exceeding in value the sum of one
hundred thousand dollars.

2. The objects of said association shall be the improve-
ment of the government, discipline, and general manage-
ment of prisons within this state, whether under the
control of state, city, or county authorities; the ameliora-
tion of the condition of prisoners, whether detained as
witnesses or for trial, or finally convicted ; and the encour-
agement and aid of discharged convicts who exhibit any
desire to reform and to become good citizens.

3. Said association shall have power, in furtherance of
said objects, to establish and to conduct anywhere within
the limits of the commonwealth such employment offices,
houses of industry, or other agencies of like aim and
character as they may deem best calculated to aid dis-
charged convicts, by affording them the means of obtain-
ing an honest livelihood and sustaining them in their
efforts at reform; and to establish such houses of correc-
tion, work-houses, or other institutions of like aim and
character as they may deem advisable, and in their dis-
cretion to receive into them such youthful offenders,
vagrants, disorderly persons, or persons convicted of petty
crimes, as the courts and magistrates of the commonwealth
may see fit to commit to their charge; and said association
shall have the same power to detain, govern, and employ
the persons so committed, as are by law conferred upon
the proper authorities of the state penitentiary with regard
to the persons committed to it.

4. Said association shall have power, during the min-
ority of any persons so committed to their charge, to bind
out such persons being minors, during their minority, as
apprentices or servants, to such persons, at such places,
and for such employment, 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.

5. Said association is hereby authorized and empowered
from time to time to visit and inspect all the prisons in
this state, whether under the control of the state, city, or
county authorities, including also police stations in cities;
but such inspections are not to be made except upon the
order of the judge of the court of the county or city
where the prison to be inspected is, or upon ‘the order of
the judge of the judicial circuit wherein such city or
county is situated, or upon the order of the governor of
the commonwealth, and it is hereby made the duty of all
officers and authorities more or less directly in charge of
said prisons to afford every facility within their power to
further said inspections so ordered, and to make them
thorough and complete.

6. Said association shall have power to make and to
enforce such lawfui constitutions, by-laws and regulations
for the management and disposition of the affairs and
estate of the association, and for the management, con-
trol, instruction and employment of the persons com-
mitted to their custody, as they may deem proper; and to
appoint and empower such officers, agents, and servants
as they may deem necessary for the efficient transaction
of all the business of the association and to designate
their respective duties.

7. It shall be the duty of said association to make an
annual report of their work to the general assembly of
Virginia, embracing in said report such information and
recommendations as they may deem best calculated to aid
the assembly in improving and perfecting the laws touch-
ing matters within the scope of the purposes and work of
the association.

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