Chap. 404.—An ACT to provide for the examination and punishment of
persons convicted of prostitution, or of keeping houses of ill-fame or
assignation, and for commitment of such persons to city farms or hos-
pitals. [H B 35)

Approved March 23, 1918.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
any person convicted by any court or justice of this State, of pros-
titution or of being a keeper, inmate or frequenter of a house of ill-
fame, prostitution or assignation, or of soliciting for immoral pur-
poses, shall be subjected to a physical examination for contagious
venereal disease by the local board of health of the county or city
in which such person is convicted, or by a competent physician ap-
pointed and designated by the trial justice or court, and no such
person shall be released until pronounced by said board, or physician,
not dangerous to the community on account of such venereal disease.

2, Any person convicted of being a prostitute, keeper or inmate
of a house of ill-fame, prostitution or assignation, or soliciting for
immoral purposes, shall not be fined but shall be committed to a city
farm or hospital, as in the discretion of the court or justice is deemed
best, or in case there is not a city farm or hospital in which such
convicted person can be confined, such person shall be committed to
jail.
3. The judges and justices are authorized to commit, with the
consent of the farm board, persons convicted of being prostitutes,
or for keeping or conducting a house of prostitution or assignation
to any county or city farm established in accordance with an act
approved March fourteenth, nineteen hundred and fourteen, or any
hospital for the treatment of venereal diseases which have been or
may be established in this Commonwealth.

4. The State board of charities and corrections shall report to
the governor all persons confined in the jails of the State for pros-
titution, or for keeping a house of ill-fame or assignation, and the
governor is hereby authorized, with the consent of the farm board,
to remove such persons from the jails to city farms or other suitable
institutions. And the State shall pay to institutions receiving and
caring for such persons the same that the sheriff or sergeant was
receiving for their keep in jails from which they are removed.

5. An emergency existing because of unsatisfactory conditions
existing in this State, this act shall be in force from its passage.

6. All acts and parts of acts in conflict with this act are hereby

repealed.