Chap. 289.—An ACT providing for detention or commitment of minors under
seventeen years of age for certain offenses not in jails or penitentiaries;
placing them in suitable homes and institutions under certain circunm-
stances; when they can and cannot be sent to jail; allowing them to be
released on probation; the approval of the State board of charities and
corrections under certain contingencies; penalties for removing any
child committed hereunder or violating any provision hereof; allowing
*ury trials and appeals: appointment of probation officers and outlining
their duties; and declaring an emergency.

Approved March 16, 1910.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That every court
of record of general criminal jurisdiction, or the judge thereof in vaca-
tion, and the police and justices courts are hereby authorized and empow-
ered in their discretion to commit to the care and custody of any society,
association or reformatory approved by the State board of charities and
corrections, and chartered under the laws of this State for the care, cus-
tody and maintenance, protection, discipline or betterment of children,
any child under seventeen years of age who is charged with any felony,
except rape, and never having been heretofore convicted in any court of a
misdemeanor or felony under the Jaws of Virginia, or who is charged
with or convicted of a petty crime or misdemeanor or any crime or in-
famous offenses punishable as a misdemeanor or as a felony and not
exclusively as a felony, and all cases of larceny, or any child under
seventeen years of age who is vicious or depraved, a persistent truant,
destitute, exposed *o immoral or vicious influence, or who is generally
ill-treated or neglected by his parents, guardian, custodian, or declared by
such to be incorrigible, provided that such commitment shall cease when
the child shall reach the age of twenty-one years; and such societies and
associations may place under contract such children until they reach the
age of twenty-one years in suitable family homes, institutions or training
schools for the care of children, but whenever such child shall be so
placed elsewhere a report of such action shall be made to the State
board of charities and corrections in such form as may be required by it.
All juvenile offenders, managed or controlled under the provision of this
act, shall be deemed not to be criminals and shall not be treated as such.

2. No court, unless the offense is aggravated, or the ends of justice
demand otherwise, shall sentence or commit a child under seventeen
years of age charged with or proven to have been guilty of any crime
named in section one to a jail, work-house or police station, or send such
child on to the grand jury, nor sentence such child to the penitentiary;
but such child may be committed, after hearing is had, as is hereinafter
provided, to any society or association formed for the purpose specified in
section one of this act; or the court, or the judge above mentioned, may
commit such a child to a reformatory under the laws now or hereinafter
provided for such commitment. Nothing herein shall prevent the im-
position of such punishment as is prescribed by the laws of the State of
Virginia for the offense with which such child is charged, when no
socicty or association or reformatory will accept such child, and under
such circumstances the court may make such commitment or disposition
of such child as it may deem best.

3. That for the purpose of aiding the court, or the judge mentioned
above, in a proper disposition of cases and matters enumerated in sec-
tion one of this act, the societies or associations or reformatories referred
to in said section are hereby authorized and empowered, with the consent
of the court, to designate one or more of their officers or employees, pro-
bation officers for the court, whose duty shall be to make such investiga-
tion of cases involving children under seventeen years of age as the court
may direct, to be present in court in order to represent the interest of the
child when the case is heard, to furnish the court such information and
assistance as the court or judge may require, and to take charge of any
such child before and after the trial as may be directed by the court, or
Judge above mentioned, and to perform such other duties as the court
may confer upon him. No probation officer shall receive any compensa-
tion for his services from the treasury of the State, except when traveling
by order of the court, when he shall, upon certificate of such judge, receive
such mileage as is paid Commonwealth’s witnesses for similar services
and in the same manner.

4. That the court, or the judge above mentioned, shall also have power
and is hereby authorized, at its discretion, to release any juvenile for any
offense mentioned in section one of this act under the care of a proba-
tion officer for a probationary period not exceeding one year, who shall
cause such child to return to court at the end of such term either for
sentence or dismissal; such released child shall be under the jurisdiction
of the court for such period, and shall be subject to such rules and regu-
lations touching the welfare of the child as may be prescribed by the
court. In case such a released child shall fail to keep or disregard the
terms of his probation, the court, or the judge thereof in vacation, shall
have the power to cause such child to be brought before it for further
proceedings, and to be dealt with in such manner as may appear to be for
the best interest of the child.

5. The judge of the corporation court of any city may, upon the
recommendation of the chairman of the State board of charities and cor-
rections, appoint and deputize any member of the police of such city,
not exceeding three in number, to act and serve as probationary officer or
officers, as long as the judge of such court may deem desirable. Such
police designated shall, while so being such probationary officer or officers,
be relieved of ordinary detail duties of the police, but shall otherwise re-
main subject to the control, suspension or removal of or by the proper
municipal officers of such city as are other police therein. The judge of
a circuit court having jurisdiction over a town, may, upon the recom-
mendation of said chairman, appoint and deputize in such town a con-
stable to serve as such probationary officer.

All persons so selected shall fill and faithfully perform the work and
duties which may be prescribed for them by said State board of charities
and corrections, or by the chairman thereof under authority from said
board. Such police or constables so appointed shall receive no extra
compensation over their regular pay, if any, except the municipal author-
ities of a town may, if they sce fit, pay to such constable so appointed
such compensation as they may determine to be reasonable. Each proba-
tionary officer shall promptly make all reports which may be required of
him by the State board of charities and corrections, or the chairman
thereof, or by the court or the judge above mentioned, who shall have
released a child under probation under the supervision of such an officer.

6. Whenever a child under seventeen years of age shall be charged
before any police justice of any city, or before a justice of the peace, with
any crime embraced in section one of this act, a hearing shall be had of
the evidence bearing upon the guilt and innocence of the child. If the
court shall deem the evidence insufficient for a conviction or insufficient
to justify the child being sent on to a grand jury, it shall discharge the
child. If sufficient to justify a conviction or to send the child on to a
grand jury, then the court is empowered to act under the provisions of
this statute as to the disposition of said child: provided, that the child
shall have the same right of appeal from any order entered by such court
as is provided by the law for an appeal from any judgment of conviction
entered by any such court. In case of any such appeal the court to which
such appeal is taken, or in case of any such child being sent on to a
grand jury, the court to which the child is so sent shall, after the trial is
had in conformity with the requirements of law, have, if the child is held
guilty of crime, the power to act under the provisions of this statute as to
the disposition of the child. From the hearing or trial of all juvenile
offenders and matters under the provisions of this statute there shall be
excluded all persons not officers of the court, attorneys or witnesses in the
case, or relations of the child charged with the offense. Any such hearing
or trial shall be had in chambers.

v7. It shall be unlawful for any person to remove or attempt to remove
any child committed under the provisions of this act, and for so doing
shall be in contempt of the court for removing such child and shall be so
punished by the court.

8. Nothing herein shall deprive the juvenile of the right to appeal
from any judgment or order of any court, or judge above mentioned, pro-
nounced upon any offense or matter for the violation of the provisions
of this act to any court in which such offense or matter is appealable
under the laws of this State.

9. All societies and associations receiving children under this act shall
be subject to the visitation, inspection and supervision of the State board
of charities and corrections, and it shall be the duty of said board to pass
annually upon the fitness of every society or association that may receive
or desire to receive children under the provisions of this act, and every
society or association shall annually, as said board may direct, make report
thereto showing its conditions, management and competency adequately
to care for such children as are, or may be, committed to it, and such
other facts as said board may require, and when said board is satisfied
as to the care given such children, it shal] issue to the society or associa-
tion a certificate to that effect, which shall continue in force until re-
voked by said board, and no such child shall be committed to any society
or association which shall not have received such a certificate and shall
hold same unrevoked at the time of such committal. Any court of
record named in section one of this act, or the judge thereof in vacation,
may at any time require from any society or association receiving or de-
siring to receive children under the provisions of this act such reports,
information and statement of its condition and management as the court
or the judge thereof in vacation, may deem proper or necessary.

10. Upon petition of any reputable citizen under oath that any of thi
provisions of this act have been, or are being, violated by anyone, or by)
any institution, the court, or the judge thereof in vacation, having juris
diction over the locality where such persons reside or such institution is
located, may cause such person or institution by proper process to appeal
before the court, or the judge thereof in vacation, at such time, and at
such place within such locality as the process may name, and may ente
judgment or order as the ends of justice may require.

11. The court, or any judge authorized to act hereunder in vacation.
and all officers performing any act or executing any process under thi:
act, are vested with all incidental powers necessary to the effectual execu-
tion of the object and purposes of this act.

12. This act shall be construed liberally as to its objects and powers,
to the end that its purpose may be carried out, to-wit: that the care,
custody and discipline of the child may approximate as nearly as may be
that which should be by its parents, and prevent the child, where possible,
from the stigma of jail and the contaminating influences of association
with criminals.

13. Words in this act importing the masculine gender must be applied
to include girls under seventeen years of age.

14, All laws and parts of laws not consistent herewith are hereby
repealed.

15. There being an emergency, this act is ordered to be in force and
effect immediately upon its passage.