Farm," which corporation was continued by the former provisions of this section, taking effect February seventeenth, nineteen hundred and nine, under the name and style of "Burnham Industrial Farm," is hereby continued as the "Berkshire Industrial Farm," and by the latter name shall have power to take by gift, lease, purchase, devise or bequest real and personal property and hold the same for the proper uses and purposes of said corporation; provided that the annual income from such real estate shall not exceed fifty thousand dollars. (Former § 280, renumbered by L. 1909, ch. 258, and amended by L. 1917, ch. 109.)

§ 361. Objects of corporation. The objects of this corporation shall be to receive and take charge of such boys as may legally come into its custody and care, and to provide for their support, education and training. (Former § 281, thus renumbered by L. 1909, ch. 258.)

§ 365. Custody of boys, how acquired; notice to corporation. The corporation shall be deemed to have acquired lawful care and custody of any boy between the ages of six and sixteen years who shall have been surrendered to it by his parent or guardian; provided that such surrender is evidenced by a writing executed by such parent or guardian setting forth the name and age of the boy, the date of surrender, and the term for which such surrender is made, and expressly vesting in the corporation all the powers. and control over the boy of which such parent or guardian was possessed; provided that no such surrender shall be made except upon five days' previous notice of the intention to make such surrender in writing, by the parent or guardian of the child to the said corporation or its agents. (Former § 285, thus renumbered by L. 1909, ch. 258.)

$366. Commitments of boys by magistrates to care of corporation; effect of commitments. Any justice of the peace, police justice, or other committing magistrate or officer, is hereby authorized to commit to said corporation, with its consent, any boys between the ages of six and sixteen years, deserting their homes without good or sufficient cause, or keeping company with dissolute or vicious persons against the lawful commands of their fathers, mothers, guardians or other persons standing in the place of a parent; or any such boys found wandering in the streets or lanes of any city or village, or in the highways of any town without guardianship, and practicing dissolute or vicious habits. Such commitment to said corporation shall be to the custody and control thereof until such boys are discharged therefrom by operation of law or by the said corporation; but such boys shall not in any event be detained by said corporation after they arrive at the age of twenty-one years. (Former § 286, thus renumbered by L. 1909, ch. 258.)

§ 367. Truant homes and charitable institutions, transfer of certain boys by. The corporate authorities of any truant school,

or charitable institution now or hereafter having the lawful custody and care of any boy not less than six years of age, and not awaiting trial nor under sentence for a term of years for crime, may, with the consent of said corporation, transfer and assign such custody and care to this corporation upon such terms as the directors of such institution and said corporation may agree. (Former § 287, thus renumbered by L. 1909, ch. 258.)

368. Power of corporation as to boys in its care; corporation to act as guardian. Said corporation shall have the custody and control of all boys surrendered, committed or transferred to it under sections three hundred and sixty-five to three hundred and sixty-seven of this article, and shall have authority by its officers or agents to restrain and direct them, to assign them to suitable employments, to determine their hours of labor, study and rest, to care for their sustenance and health, and to instruct them in useful knowledge; and shall have power to place such boys in suitable homes where they may be adopted into families or taken on trial or for a limited time; or, in its discretion, to return them to their former home or their parents or guardians. And said corporation may, with the consent of any other charitable corporation authorized by law to take the custody and control of orphan, vagrant, destitute, abandoned or disorderly boys, transfer to such other corporation the custody and control of any boy whenever such transfer is deemed by said corporation to be necessary and proper for the welfare of such boy or for the discipline or protection of other boys in its charge, provided that there be first obtained from a judge of a court of record in the county where said corporation. shall have its principal buildings, an order of approval of such transfer. (Former 288, thus renumbered and amended by L. 1909, ch. 258, and L. 1923, ch. 306.)

§ 369. Statements as to age. In all cases under this article where boys shall come under the care, custody or control of said corporation, the age of such boys shall, so far as said corporation is concerned, be prima facie deemed and taken to be correct as stated in the written surrender of the parent or guardian, or the order of commitment by the committing magistrate or officer, or in the transfer by the authorities of any truant school or charitable institution; and in case of any omission to state the age of any boy in any of such cases, the directors of said corporation shall, as soon as may be after such boy shall be received by them, ascertain his age by the best means in their power and cause the same to be entered in a book to be designated by them for the purpose. And the age of such boy thus ascertained shall be prima facie deemed and taken to be the true age of such boy. (Former § 289, thus renumbered by L. 1909, ch. 258.)

IX. INSTITUTIONS FOR MENTAL DEFECTIVES.

Mental Deficiency Law.

(L. 1919, ch. 633.)

§ 14. Institutions to furnish information to commission. The authorities of the several state and private institutions for mental defectives shall furnish to the commission the facts relating to inmates in said institutions as the commission may from time to time in the just and reasonable discharge of its duties require of them, with the opinion of the superintendent thereon, if requested. The superintendent or person in charge of such institutions shall at the beginning of each month cause a true copy of the certificates and orders on which defectives shall have been admitted to the institution since the beginning of the preceding month, to be made and forwarded to the office of the commission and, when an inmate shall be discharged, paroled, transferred or shall die therein, such superintendent or person in charge shall send the information to the office of the commission in accordance with the forms prescribed by it at the beginning of the following month or at such earlier date as the commission may require.

§ 15. State institutions. The state institution for feeble-minded children at Syracuse, Onondaga county, is hereby continued and shall hereafter be known as the Syracuse State School for Mental Defectives. This institution shall be maintained as a school and shall be limited as far as possible to children who are of a school age and who are capable of being benefited by instruction. The asylum established at Newark, Wayne county, known as the State. Custodial Asylum for Feeble-minded Women, is hereby continued as a body corporate and shall hereafter be known as the Newark State School for Mental Defectives. The asylum established at Rome, Oneida county, for the custody, maintenance and training of the custodial class of feeble-minded persons and idiots, known as the Rome State Custodial Asylum, is hereby continued and shall hereafter be known as the Rome State School for Mental Defectives. The institution at Thiells, Rockland county, known as Letchworth Village, is hereby continued.

§ 16. Private institutions. No mental defectives shall be cared for in a private institution unless such private institution shall be approved by the commission and shall have been given a license to conduct an institution for mental defectives, and such private institution so licensed shall be under the supervision and subject to the rules and regulations of the commission.

§ 24. Procedure for commitment of mentally defective persons. A judge of a court of record of the city or county, or of a children's court, or a justice of the supreme court of the judicial district in which an alleged mental defective, who is not a person. over sixteen years of age in confinement on a criminal charge,

resides or may be, adjudging such person to be mentally defective, may order as provided in this article his commitment to an institution for the care, training and custody of mental defectives, or to the guardianship of a relative. In the case of an alleged mentally defective person over sixteen years of age charged with a misdemeanor the judge or justice may, if satisfied that the alleged mental defective is mentally defective, order his commitment to one of the state institutions for mental defectives. Such order shall be made upon a verified petition therefor and the certificate of mental defect made by two qualified examiners, or upon such petition and certificate and after a hearing to determine such question as provided in this article. A mental defective who is not a person over sixteen years of age in confinement on a criminal charge shall be committed only to a state institution for mental defectives or a private institution duly licensed to care for mental defectives or to the guardianship of a relative or other person or persons designated by the court.

No mental defective, unless also insane, shall be committed to or confined in a state hospital for the insane but any mental defective becoming insane may be committed as an insane person to a state hospital for care, treatment and custody and may be confined therein during the duration of such insanity. (Amended by L. 1921, ch. 483.)

§ 38. Paroles. Where an inmate is paroled to a relative, legal guardian or other person, such relative, legal guardian or other person must be of the same religious faith as that of the parents of such mental defective. An inmate of any of the state institutions may be permitted by the superintendent with the consent of the board of managers to leave the institution on parole and remain in the custody of a parent, relative, legal guardian or other person. At any time during such parole, upon evidence satisfactory to the superintendent or to the board of managers or to the commission that the parole terminate, such inmate must be returned to the institution. Every parent, relative or legal guardian to whom such inmate shall be paroled shall report the physical and moral and mental condition of the inmate to the superintendent either in person or by writing as often and as fully as he may require and subject to such rules and regulations as the commission may determine and in case of failure to so report on request the inmate shall be returned to the institution. At any time during the parole the inmate shall be accessible to the parole agent of the institution. The institution paroling a patient shall not be liable in any manner whatsoever for such patient while on parole. Such liability shall devolve upon the parent, legal guardian, relative, or persons to whose care the inmate is paroled or the proper poor official of the municipality in which he may have found domicile. A mental defective who has been arraigned, convicted or in custody on a criminal charge shall not be paroled

before he might have been paroled from another institution, if any, to which he was originally committed or before he would have been paroled if he had been committed to a reformatory or penal institution under a similar charge. (Amended by L. 1921, ch. 483.)

X. STATE REFORMATORY.

(L. 1912, ch. 502.)

§ 1. Establishment and purposes. A state reformatory for misdemeanants is hereby established for the reformation and the educational, industrial and moral instruction and training of males under conviction and sentence for commission of misdemeanors or other minor offenses.

§ 4. Commitment; term of detention. As soon as the said buildings and improvements shall be completely finished or so far finished as to be ready for use as a reformatory and ready for the reception of inmates, the said managers shall officially notify the several county clerks of all the counties of the state of that fact. It shall be the duty of the said county clerks immediately on receipt of the said official notification to transmit a copy thereof to each and all of the several courts in their respective counties and to each and all of the several justices of the supreme court and other judges, justices and magistrates, residing or sitting in their respective counties. Thereafter any male between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one years inclusive, convicted by any court or magistrate of a misdemeanor, or other minor offense for which he might be sentenced to imprisonment, may be sentenced and committed to the said institution, to be there confined, as herein provided. Such commitments shall not be for a definite term, but any such male at any time after his commitment may be paroled or discharged by the said board of managers, but shall not in any case be detained longer than three years. If through oversight or otherwise any male be sentenced to imprisonment in the said institution for a definite period of time, such sentence shall not for that reason be void, but the person so sentenced shall be entitled to the benefits and subject to the liabilities of this act, in the same manner and to the same extent as if such sentence had been for an indefinite period of time, in the manner herein provided for. Commitments to the said institution shall be as herein provided, anything in the penal law to the contrary notwithstanding. In rendering such sentence, preference may be given to minors, over adults, in view of the limited room in said reformatory of the reception of inmates.

XI. DEAF MUTES AND BLIND.

EDUCATION

The Education Law (L. 1909, ch. 21; L. 1910, ch. 140) makes detailed provisions for the educational training of deaf mutes and blind pupils, establishing special classes and courses of instruction