CHAP. 489.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act approved February
27, 1906, entitled an act to authorize the court in which he is tried, to
sentence certain prisoners to hard labor on the public roads instead
of confinement in the penitentiary, for the commission of felony, as
heretofore amended, including the amendment thereto in regard to
contracts for the hiring of convicts, made by the act approved Feb-
ruary 29, 1912, chapter 59, acts of assembly, session 1912, pages 101
and 102. (S. B. 303.)

Approved March 22, 1916.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
an act approved February twenty-seventh, nineteen hundred
and six, entitled an act to authorize the court in which he is
tried, to sentence certain prisoners to hard labor on the public
roads instead of confinement in the penitentiary, for the com-
mission of felony, as heretofore amended, including the amend-
ments thereto in regard to contracts for the hiring of convicts,
made by the act approved February twenty-ninth, nineteen
hundred and twelve, chapter fifty-nine, acts of assembly, ses-
sion nineteen hundred and twelve, pages one hundred and one
and one hundred and two, be amended and re-enacted so as to
read as follows:

Section 4046-a. Upon conviction of:any felony prior to the
first of May, nineteen hundred and thirteen, when the judgment
is fixed, either by the judge or jury, at confinement in the peni-
tentiary, for a term not to exceed five years, it shall be lawful
for the court, in its discretion, instead of sentencing the pris-
oner to the penitentiary, and in lieu thereof, to sentence him to
hard labor on the public roads and other public works, for a
period of time equal to the term of confinement in the peniten-
tiary so fixed; and that he be delivered into the custody of the
superintendent of the penitentiary to be kept by him as a mem-
ber of the State convict road force, in accordance with law, and
subject to work on the public roads or other public works, after
the first of May, nineteen hundred and thirteen, prisoners con-
victed of felony shall be sentenced to confinement in the peni-
tentiary, and after that date all male prisoners confined in the
penitentiary shall be subject to work on the State convict road
force or other public works.

. But such convicts as the superintendent of the penitentiary
on account of physical condition, character or disposition, shall
deem it unsafe to be put on the convict road force, may be em-
ployed by the penitentiary board, in work for the State at the
penitentiary, or in State or county stone quarries, or at the
State farm.

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