Chap. 276.—An ACT to establish a board of charities and corrections to define
its duties and to fix the compensation of said board and subordinates and
to provide for the manner in which they shall be appointed to said offices.

Approved March 13, 1908.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That a board
of charities and corrections be, and the same is, hereby established,
consisting of five members, who shall be appointed by the governor,
subject to confirmation by the senate. The terms of the members of
the said board of charities and corrections first appointed shall be one,
two, three, four, and five years, respectively, commencing on the first
day of April, nineteen hundred and eight and thereafter upon the ex-
piration of the term of a member of said board, his successor shall be
appointed for a term of five years. Appointments to fill vacancies
caused by death, resignation or removal, before the expiration of such
terms, shall be made for the residue of such terms in the same manner
as herein provided for original appointments. No director, officer or
employee of an institution subject to the terms of this act, shall be ap-
pointed a member of such board.

2. That the members of said board of charities and corrections may
at any time be removed by the governor for good cause. The failure
of any member of said board to attend at least one meeting thereof
during any year, unless excused by formal vote of the board, may be
construed by the governor as a resignation of such non-attending
member.

3. That the register of the land office shall designate an office in
either the capitol or library building at Richmond, for the use of said
board, which shall hold regular meetings in May and November in
each year, and oftener, as may be required. The board shall make
such rules and orders for the regulation of its duties as it may deem
necessary. The members of the board shall receive no compensation
for their services, except as hereinafter provided.

4. That the said board shall appoint a secretary, who shall be paid
for his services, in addition to necessary traveling expenses, an annual
‘salary to be fixed by said board, not exceeding the sum of two thousand
‘dollars, payable in monthly instalments. No person while a member
-of the board or within twelve months after retirement therefrom, shall
be eligible for this office.

5. That the said board shall appoint an assistant secretary, who shall
receive an annual salary of not exceeding twelve hundred dollars, pay-
able in monthly instalments, and his necessary traveling expenses.

6. The sum of five thousand dollars annually, or so much thereof as
may be necessary, is hereby appropriated for the maintenance of the
office of said board, including the salaries and traveling expenses of
the members of the board, its paid employees, and other expenses
necessary to carry out the purposes of this act, to be paid out of any
funds in the treasury of the Commonwealth not otherwise appropriated.

%. That the members of said board, and the secretary and assistant
shall, before entering upon the discharge of their duties, take an oath to
faithfully perform any duties imposed upon them under this act.
Before entering upon the discharge of their duties the secretary and
assistant secretary shall each execute a bond, payable to the Common-
wealth in such sums as shall be required by the board, with sufficient
security, which bonds shall be filed in the office of the secretary of the
Commonwealth. That the said secretary and assistant secretary shall
serve during the pleasure of the board and may be removed by the said
board at any time for good cause.

8. That the duties of the board shall be strictly visitorial and ad-
visory, without administrative or executive powers. It is hereby em-
powered and authorized and it shall be its duty, as a whole or by a
committee of its members or by its secretary or assistant secretary, to
visit, inspect and examine, once a year or oftener, the State, county,
municipal and private institutions which are of an eleemosynary, a
charitable, correctional or reformatory character, or which are for the
care, custody or training of the defective, dependent, delinquent or
criminal classes, except that the hospitals for the insane, the peni-
tentiary and the reformatories shall be visited as often as once in six
months and by at least two members of the board; it shall also inspect
and report upon the workings and results of chartered institutions or
associations engaged in the care and protection of homeless, dependent,
defective and delinquent children or adults. The board shall make
reports regarding the condition of said institutions or associations,
the care of their inmates, the efficiency of their administration and such
other matters pertaining thereto as it may deem proper. All reports
shall be duly signed and filed in the office of the board, and copies
thereof transmitted to the presidents or chairmen of the boards of di-
rectors of the State institutions, to the chairmen of the boards of super-
visors in the counties, and presidents of the councils in cities, and the
officials who are in charge of the respective institutions. That the
officers and all other persons in charge of or connected in any way with
the administration or management of such public institutions are hereby
required to furnish to the board or its committee, secretary or assistant
secretary such information and statistics as may be required, and allow
said board, its committee, secretary or assistant secretary, or ‘other
agents of the board, full and free access to all inmates and departments
of such institutions and to all their records, for the purposes of this act.
That with a view of increasing the efficiency of public officials and bring-
ing institutions for the care and custody of the dependent, defective
and delinquent classes up to a high and modern standard, the board
shall cause to be distributed among such officials literature bearing
upon subjects embraced under this act.

9. That every superintendent or chief officer having in charge a
hospital, penitentiary, prison farm, reformatory, almshouse, jail or
other institution within the provisions of this act, shall make quarterly
reports to the board, containing such information and in such form
as said board may prescribe. That the purposes of this act may be
carried out, the members of the said board and its secretary shall con-
fer with and suggest any matters of importance to officials connected
with the institutions under their supervision.

10. That all plans for new jails, reformatories and almshouses shall,
before the adoption of the same by the county or city authorities, be
submitted to said board, who shall promptly return the same with such
suggestions and recommendations as it may deem reasonable and proper.

11. That for each county or city there shall be appointed by the said
board a local committee of visitors, consisting of three persons, one of
whom shall be a member of the local board of health, and one of whom
may be a woman, to aid the board in its work. The duty of said com-
mittee shall be to visit and inspect as often as it may deem advisable,
or upon request of the board, and to report annually, or upon request,
to the board any matters of importance respecting the jails and alms-
houses in any such county or city, and to encourage and aid the local
authorities in maintaining such institutions in an efficient manner.
The members of such committees shall receive no compensation, but
shall be provided by said board with all necessary stationery and forms
for keeping proper records and making their reports to the board.
12. That the said board shall collect, compile and publish statistics
regarding the dependent, defective and delinquent classes both in and
out of institutions, within the State, and such other data as may be of
value.

13. That the board shall annually, not later than December first
in each year, make to the governor a full and complete report of its
acts and doings during the preceding year, stating in detail all expenses
incurred, all officers and agents employed, and showing the actual con-
dition of all of said institutions embraced by this act, regarding health,
sanitation, care of inmates, and other pertinent matters, with such
recommendations as may be deemed proper to be submitted to the gen-
eral assembly. The board shall file a copy of said annual report in the
clerk’s office of the circuit court of each county and in the clerk’s office
of the corporation court of each city in this State, and shall also trans-
mit copies thereof to each State institution embraced by this act.

14. That any officer interfering with the said board, its committees,
or secretary, or assistant secretary, in the discharge of their official
duties, or refusing to disclose information concerning said institutions
embraced by this act, shall be deemed guilty of malfeasance in office,
and ‘upon conviction thereof before a court of competent jurisdiction
shall be removed from office.

15. That the said board shall annually elect from its members a
chairman, and the salaries of the secretary, assistant secretary, and other
necessary expenses incurred by the said board shall be paid out of the
public treasury, upon the order of the chairman, and all necessary print-
ing for said board shall be done by and under the direction of the
superintendent of public printing, upon the order of the chairman.

16. Whenever the governor considers it proper or necessary to in-
vestigate the management of any institution receiving aid from the State
and required to be inspected under the provisions of this act, he may
direct the board of charities and corrections, or any committee thereof,
to make such investigation as he may require. And for the purposes of
such investigation, the board, or the committee thereof, designated by
the governor, shall have the power to administer oaths and to summon
officers, employees or other persons to attend as witnesses and to en-
force their attendance, and to compel them to produce documents and
give evidence. Each member of the said board conducting such in-
vestigations shall be paid out of the funds of the institution investigated
his necessary expenses and five dollars a day during such actual service.

1%. That all acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby
repealed.