Chap. 65.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 2075 of the Code of Vir-
ginia, as amended by an act approved March 15, 1922, and Section 2003
of the Code of Virginia, in respect to the working of prisoners on the
public roads. [S B 6]

Approved February 27,. 1926.

1. Be it, enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sec-
tion twenty hundred and seventy-five of the Code of Virginia, as
amended by an act approved March fifteenth, nineteen hundred and
twenty-two, and section twenty hundred and ninety-three of the Code
of Virginia, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 2075. How persons confined in jail may be put to work
on roads.—Upon written request of the superintendent of the peni-
tentiary or of the board of supervisors of any county or the super-
visor of any magisterial district, the judge of the circuit court of any
county or the judge of the corporation court of any city shall, in term
or in vacation, unless any such prisoner shows the said judge good
cause to the contrary, order any male prisoner convicted of a mis-
demeanor, or of any offense deemed infamous in law and sentenced
to confinement in jail as a punishment, or part punishment for such
offense, or who is imprisoned for failure to pay any fine imposed upon
or assessed against him upon such conviction, or who is imprisoned
for a violation of an ordinance of any city or town which by said ordi-
nance is punishable by confinement in jail or fine, to be delivered by.
the jailor of such county or city, to or upon the order of the superin-
tendent of the penitentiary, to work in the State convict road force,
and, in case of the request of the board of supervisors of a county or
the supervisor of a magisterial district, mayor or council of any city
or town to be delivered by the jailor of such county or city, to or upon
the order of the said board of supervisors of said county or of the said
supervisor of said magisterial district, to work under the direction of
the county road superintendent or road supervisor for said magis-
terial district, or of such person or persons with whom said county or
said magisterial district may have a lawful contract or contracts;
provided, however, that no jailor of a city shall deliver any prisoner,
as aforesaid, to or upon the order of a board of supervisors of a county
or the supervisor of a magisterial district, except the board of the
county in which is located the city or the board of a county adjoining
the county in which is located the city or a supervisor of a district in
any of such counties, and when such request has been so made by the
superintendent of the penitentiary or by the board of supervisors afore-
said, or supervisor of the magisterial district aforesaid, it shall be
deemed to be a continuing request until it has been revoked by the
authority making the same. No one so confined who is under the age of
eighteen years shall be so delivered, and the delivery of any such one
over the age of eighteen and under the age of twenty-one years shall be
discretionary with the court or judge, and persons over the age of eigh-
teen years imprisoned for violation of city, town or county ordinances
or sentenced to jail for not more than thirty days for offenses against
the Commonwealth, or if for more than thirty days, pending their de-
livery as members of the State convict road force, shall be liable pri-
marily to work on chain-gangs or public works within such cities,
towns or counties at the request of the proper authorities thereof.
Any person so sentenced to such chain-gang or public works under
this section shall have the right of appeal from such sentence to the
circuit or corporation court, as the case may be. The written request
of the superintendent of the penitentiary shall have precedence over
any other request provided for in this section.

Section 2093. Proceeding where local authorities desire to im-
prove roads by contract.—lIf the local road authorities, or authority,
of any county or magisterial district proposing to improve permanently
any main traveled road, or part thereof, and desiring to avail of the
services of the State highway commission under the terms of the
chapter creating that commission and to have the benefit of the chap-
ter creating the State convict road force, shall prefer to make such
improvements by contract, then the chairman of the State highway
commission may, upon request, furnish such local road authorities,
or authority, in advance of the letting of the contract, an estimate of
the number of convicts available for use upon such proposed perma-
nent road improvements, provided that such number of convicts to
be so supplied by the chairman of the State highway commission shall
not exceed such a number as that estimating their labor at one dollar
per day per convict, exclusive of Sundays, will amount to a contri-
bution on the part of the State of more than forty per centum of the
total contract price of such proposed improvements.

Or if said local authorities, or authority, desire to avail of the pro-
visions of section twenty hundred and seventy-five of the Code of
Virginia, then, as respects the persons confined in jail, referred to in
said section twenty hundred and seventy-five, or any of them, auth-
ority is hereby given to proceed in the manner set forth in said section
twenty hundred and seventy-five, and the convicts so employed upon
contract work shall be and remain under the direction, supervision
and care of the superintendent of the penitentiary and of the chair-
man of the State highway commission, but where the authorities, or
authority, of said county or magisterial district make the contract
hereby authorized, said persons above referred to confined in said
jail shall be and remain under the direction, supervision and care of
the board of supervisors or the supervisor of the magisterial district,
respectively, as the case may be, or of such person as may be desig-
nated by said board of supervisors or by said supervisor of the mag-
isterial district, and may be worked only for such hours and under
such humane and reasonable rules, regulations and conditions as may
be jointly prescribed and enforced by the superintendent of the peni-
tentiary and the chairman of the State highway commission, or by
said board of supervisors or by said magisterial district supervisor,
or other person designated as aforesaid, as the case may be; which
said hours, rules, regulations and conditions shall be stated and pro-
mulgated in advance of the letting: of the contract or at the time when
the written request contemplated in said section twenty hundred and
seventy-five is made; provided, however, that the prison board shall
have supervisory power. over said laws, rules, regulations and con-
ditions.
2. This act shall not apply to any city having a prison farm.