CHAPTER IX.

Of the discharge from the school of reform.

Art. 247. Discharges from the School of Reform may be either by the expiration of the term of service or by apprenticeship.

Art. 248. Whatever may be the term of imprisonment designated by law for the offence of which the party sent to the School of Reform is convicted, such party cannot be discharged (unless by apprenticeship), if a female, before she has attained the age of nineteen, or if a male, before twenty-one.

Art. 249. Those who are sentenced for a term that will not expire until after they have respectively attained the ages mentioned in the last preceding article, and whose conduct has not entitled them to the recommendation hereinafter mentioned for apprenticeship, shall, within six months after attaining the ages aforesaid, be transferred to the Penitentiary to serve out the remainder of the term.

Art. 250. Those who are entitled to the recommendation, and who have not been apprenticed for some other cause, shall be discharged after having attained the age of twenty-two if a male, or twenty if a female, although the term of imprisonment in the sentence be for a longer time.

Art. 251. The warden is authorized to bind out, by indentures of apprenticeship, such of the prisoners confined as come within the description contained in the next succeeding article; and the indentures shall impose the same obligations and give the same rights and remedies as indentures of apprenticeship made by a parent or guardian, with the assent of the minors, under the civil law of the state.

Art. 252. In order to be legally bound, pursuant to the last article, the apprentice must have been two years in the School of Reform; he must have learned to read, write, and understand the first three rules in arithmetic; and must have obtained a certificate signed by the warden, (and if a female by the matron), approved by the inspectors, declaring that the moral conduct and diligence of the party has evinced such a reformation as, in their opinion, will render it safe to receive him as an apprentice.

Art. 253. The duration of the apprenticeship shall be until the party bound shall attain the age of twenty-one if a male, or nineteen if a female, unless, at the time of making the indenture, the male apprentice shall have attained nineteen years of age, or the female seventeen; in which case the indenture may be for three years, if the term of the sentence does not expire before; but if the term should expire before, the apprentice cannot be bound for a longer term than the attainment of twenty-one years for a male, or nineteen for a female, without his or her consent, and then only for the said term of three years.

Art. 254. The male apprentices shall be put out, if possible, to mechanics of the same trade they have been taught in the School of Reform; if no mechanic pursuing the same profession offers, some other demanding, as near as may be the same species of labour, shall be preferred; but whatever trade may have been taught to the apprentice, he may, by his own consent, be apprenticed to a farmer or a mariner.

Art. 255. The conditions of the articles of apprenticeship shall be, on the part of the apprentice, obedience to lawful commands, and diligence, sobriety, and honesty; on the part of the master, that he will perfect the apprentice in the trade he has been taught, or teach him the new business if such be the case, that he will continue his schooling at least one day in the week, that he will provide him necessary food, clothing, lodging, medical assistance, and that, at the end of the period, he will give him new clothing and a sum of money to be specified in the indenture, and such as the warden and the master shall think reasonable. Art. 256. No one shall be apprenticed to any one residing out of the state, nor shall the indenture be assignable without the assent of the apprentice.

Art. 257. The clause relating to the teaching and perfecting in a trade or business, is not indispensable in the indenture of a female. Art. 258. No female shall be indented to an unmarried man, or to a married man living apart from his wife.

Art. 259. It shall be a condition in the indenture between the warden and the master, that a report shall be made once in every year of the conduct of the apprentice to the warden; and if he has reason to believe that his reformation is complete, that he will permit him, if within the city of New Orleans or its suburbs, to visit the school and converse with the others still there.

Art. 260. The convict at the time of his discharge, whether apprenticed or not, shall be comfortably clad, and the inspectors, at their discretion, may make him an allowance in money, or deliver him books or tools, if they are satisfied with his conduct.

CHAPTER X.

of visits.

Art. 261. Besides the persons created visiters of all the places of confinement by this Code, and those who may receive permission from them, the parents or those related in the second degree to the persons confined in the School of Reform, may visit them on stated days, to be appointed by the warden; but when he is apprehensive that evil counsels may be given, it shall always be in the presence of an officer.

TITLE IV.

OF THE PECUNIARY CONCERNS OF THE SEVERAL PLACES OF CONFINEMENT.

Art. 262. The board of inspectors shall appoint an agent, who shall make all purchases and sales on account of all the several places of confinement, including the House of Refuge and Industry, keeping regular sets of mercantile books for each of the said institutions, which may be examined by the inspectors, the wardens, or any of the visiters.

Art. 263. The compensation of the agent shall be fixed by the inspectors, with the approbation of the governor.

Art. 264. The regular supplies of provisions, and of all other articles consumed or used in the said institutions in considerable quantities, shall be furnished by contract, and adjudged after advertisement to the lowest bidder; but the wardens shall examine the articles furnished, and have the right to reject such as are not of the quality contracted for. The physician shall, in like manner, inspect the medicines and hospital furniture.

Art. 265. All the articles manufactured in either of the said places which are not made for manufacturers by contract, in the manner hereinafter provided, shall be sold by the agent to the best advantage, under the direction of the inspectors.

Art. 266. Regular and minute accounts of the receipts and expenditures of each place of confinement, including the House of Refuge, shall be furnished each quarter by the inspectors to the governor, and yearly accounts to the legislature on the first day of their annual meeting.

Art. 267. All moneys appropriated by the legislature for the use of either of the said places, shall be drawn for by the board of inspectors as the same may be wanted, in favour of the cashier of the Louisiana State Bank, and shall by him be carried to the credit of the board of inspectors, in an account to be opened with them in their official capacity, for the use of the particular institution for which the appropriation is made (naming it in the account) between the bank and the inspectors.

Art. 268. Whenever the amount of money in the hands of the agent, received on account of either or all of the institutions, shall exceed three hundred dollars, he shall, within two days, deposit the same in the said bank to the credit of the account opened with the inspectors for the use of the prison to which it belongs.

Art. 269. No money shall be drawn from the bank, on either of the said accounts, but by a draft signed by a majority of the inspectors, specifying on account of which prison it is drawn, for what purpose, and to whom the amount is due.

Art. 270. All accounts or demands against the prisons shall be examined, allowed, and paid by the inspectors; and when they meet to settle such accounts, the agent shall act as their clerk and shall make regular entries in the books of all receipts and expenditures, to the account of the institution to which they belong; but a sum, not exceeding one hundred dollars, may be placed in the hands of each warden, and as much in the hands of the agent, to pay current expenses, to be accounted for monthly to the inspectors.

Art. 271. If either the inspectors or the agent shall fail in making any deposit in the manner and at the time directed by either of the three last preceding articles; or if the inspectors, or either of them, shall draw out of the bank any moneys belonging to or appropriated for either of the said places of confinement, including the House of Refuge, in any other manner than is above directed, the person so offending shall pay a fine of five hundred dollars; and if any of the said moneys which are either not deposited when by the said articles or either of them they ought to be, or are drawn out of the bank contrary to the directions of this chapter, shall be applied to any other use than to that of the said institutions, or one of them, the person guilty of such misapplication shall be dismissed from his office, be imprisoned, in close custody, for sixty days, and pay a fine of one thousand dollars.

Art. 272. The wardens of the several prisons shall deliver to the agent all the articles manufactured in their prisons respectively, which are not necessary for the use of such prison, except those articles manufac

tured in the House of Detention by the prisoners there who have provided their own materials, or who have made a different arrangement with the inspectors for the disposal of the proceeds of their labour; and excepting also the articles made for manufacturers by contract, in the Penitentiary, School of Reform, and House of Refuge and Industry.

Art. 273. The wardens of the Penitentiary and of the School of Reform shall each be allowed, in addition to their salaries, per cent. on the gross amount of sales by the agent of the articles manufactured in their prisons respectively, after deducting only the cost of the materials employed in the articles so sold; and also

per cent. on the amount of sums paid for the labour of the convicts by manufacturers; but this allowance shall be forfeited for every year in which the wardens shall use any other means than those authorized by this Code to induce the convicts to labour, either by way of punishment or reward.

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Art. 274. The average number of deaths in the principal penitentiaries of the United States having been found to be about every hundred annually, (taking the average of the number of prisoners confined at all times during the year as the basis of the calculation for the whole number,) as an encouragement to use greater care and attention in lessening this rate of mortality, if the said proportion shall be in any one year reduced in the Penitentiary of this state more than one half of that average, the governor shall present to the physician books, surgical instruments, or plate, of the value of dollars, which testimonial shall be doubled in value if the proportion be reduced more than three-fourths.

Art. 275. The average number of re-convictions in the principal cities of the Union having been found to be about in every

hundred annually of those committed to the Penitentiary in those cities; to lessen this proportion is the object of the reformatory part of prison discipline. To incite, therefore, the officers to a zealous discharge of this part of their duty, if in any one year, succeeding the third year after this Code shall have gone into operation, the number of re-commitments to the Penitentiary shall be less, in any one year, by one-half than that proportion, an honorary testimonial of that fact, consisting of a piece of plate of the value of dollars, shall be presented by

the governor to the inspectors, the wardens, the chaplains, and teachers, of the said prison; the value of which plate shall be doubled in any year in which the said proportion is reduced to less than three-fourths of the average above stated.

Art. 276. A similar testimonial shall be given to the matrons, if the like reduction takes place in the re-commitments of the female convicts. Art. 277. The amount requisite for the purchase of the testimonials aforesaid, shall be taken from the recompense fund, created by the Code of Criminal Procedure.

TITLE V.

OF THE DISCHARGE OF THE CONVICTS.

Art. 278. Whenever a convict shall be discharged by the expiration

of the term to which he was condemned, or by pardon, he shall take off the prison uniform and have the clothes which he brought to the prison restored to him, together with the other property, if any, that was taken from him on his commitment, that has not been otherwise legally disposed of.

Art. 279. A copy of his account with the prison, made out in the manner herein before directed, shall be given to him; and if the proceeds of his labour produce any balance in his favour, one half of such balance shall be paid him.

Art. 280. Before the convict is dismissed, the chapter of the Penal Code, "Of the Repetition of Offences," shall be read to him.

Art. 281. If the warden, the chaplain, and the teacher, have been satisfied with the morality, industry, and order of his conduct, they shall give him a certificate to that effect.

Art. 282. One or more of the inspectors shall be present whenever a convict is discharged, who, as well as the officers of the prison, shall inquire into his future prospects and designs; shall aid him in an endeavour to procure an honest support, or to return to his friends; shall exhort him to perseverance in habits of industry; and if he can find no other employment, and is desirous of maintaining himself by labour, the warden shall admit him into the House of Refuge, hereinafter provided for.

Art. 283. If the warden shall discover that any discharged convict, instead of seeking to maintain himself by labour, shall associate with the idle and profligate, he shall immediately proceed against him as a vagrant, under the provisions for that purpose contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure.

TITLE VI.

HOW THE PROPERTY OF PERSONS CONDEMNED FOR CRIME SHALL BE DISPOSED OF.

CHAPTER I.

Of the property of convicts condemned to imprisonment and labour for a term.

Art. 284. The property of convicts condemned to imprisonment and labour, may be administered by curators during the term for which they are condemned. The letters of curatorship are revoked by their pardon or discharge; but such revocation does not invalidate legal acts done by the curator.

Art. 285. Any person who would be entitled to the curatorship of the convict, had he died on the day judgment was pronounced against him, shall be entitled to the curatorship.

Art. 286. The mode of proceeding to obtain the letters of curatorship shall be the same as that prescribed in case of death, except that, instead of alleging and proving the death of the party, the record of his condemnation shall be produced to the judge.

Art. 287. The curatorship, in case of condemnation, carries with it