PART IV.

Duty of keepers of house of refuge.

CHAP. 608.

AN ACT in relation to the confinement of juvenile offenders under sentence of the courts of the United States.

PASSED July 21, 1853.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

S1. It shall be the duty of the respective keepers of the house of refuge in the city of New York, and the western house of refuge, to receive and safely keep in their respective houses, subject to the regulations and discipline thereof, any criminal under the age of sixteen years, convicted of any offence against the United States. sentenced to imprisonment therein by any court of the United States sitting within this state, until such sentence be executed, or until such convict shall be discharged by due course of law; the United States supporting such convict and paying the expenses attendant upon the execution of such sentence.

Согрогаtion.

Name.

Powers.

CHAP. 123.

AN ACT to incorporate the Buffalo Juvenile Asylum. PASSED April 7, 1856; three-fifths being present. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

$1. Jesse Ketchum, Gaius B. Rich, Jason Sexton, George S. Hazard, Cyrus P. Lee, George W. Clinton, George Palmer, Lester Bruce, Nathan K. Hall, John Hauenstein, Oliver G. Steele, Aaron Remsey, Samuel N. Cadwallader, Bradford A. Manchester, John R. Evans, Frederick P. Stevens, George A. Moor, Douglass W. Williams, E. P. Door, Samuel G. Walker, F. H. Root, Henry W. Rogers, Wm. Ashmun, George Howard, and their associates, are hereby constituted a body corporate by the name of the "Buffalo Juvenile Asylum," and by that name shall have the powers which by the third title of the eighteenth chapter of the first part of the Revised Statutes, are declared to belong to corporations; and shall be capable of taking, by purchase or devise, holding and conveying any estate, real or personal, for the use and purposes of said corporation but such real estate shall not exceed the yearly value of twenty thousand dollars, nor be applied to any other purposes than those for which this corporation is created.

:

[For § 2 see Laws of 1857, ch. 759.]

S3. The estate and concerns of said corporation shall be

Estate, &c.

aged.

classified.

office.

and other

office.

managed and conducted by a board of directors, of which CHAP. IV. board the mayor and president of the board of aldermen, and how manthe chairmen of the committees of finance, police and schools, of the said board of aldermen, for the time being, shall be ex-officio members, in addition to twenty-four other persons hereinafter provided for, which board of directors shall perform the duties required of them by virtue of this act, without any compensation for their services; and the twenty-four persons named in the first section of this act shall constitute a part of the first board of directors, and shall be divided by lot into three classes of eight each; and the first class shall Directors hold their offices respectively until the second Monday of January, which shall be in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight; and the second class shall hold their Terms of offices respectively until the second Monday of January, which shall be in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine; and the third class shall hold their offices respectively until the second Monday of January, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty. Jason Sexton shall be the President first president of the said board of directors and of the said officers. corporation; George S. Hazard shall be the first vice-president, Cyrus P. Lee the first treasurer, and George W. Clinton the first secretary thereof, and they shall respectively hold Term of their said offices until the second Monday in January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, on which day, and on each second Monday in January thereafter, the said board of directors shall assemble as soon as practicable after the close and determination of the result of the annual election of directors, and elect from the directors of said corporation a president, vice-president, treasurer and secretary, for the ensuing year. All vacancies in said offices happening before Vacancies. the expiration of the regular term thereof, may be filled until the next annual election by the board of directors at any regular meeting thereof. The powers and duties of such officers, Powers and and of all committees of said board, and of all other officers and employees of such corporation, shall be such as shall from time to time be prescribed by the by-laws of said corporation; but the indenturing committee to be appointed by said board with power to act in binding and indenturing children committed to its charge, shall consist of the president of the corporation, and two other members of the board of directors, and no indenture shall be executed by the president in behalf of said corporation, except by the consent in writing of the other members of the said committee; and except that the same may be so executed by the president or vice-president in pursuance of an express resolution of said board, and all indentures so executed shall be deemed and taken to be properly executed by said corporation.

duties.

S4. To supply the vacancies occasioned by the expiration Vacancies of the term of service of the eight directors, included in the how filled. first class, eight directors shall be elected on the second Mon

PART IV.

Election.

Term of office.

day of January, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, by the members of the said corporation, that is, the directors and such other persons as may have contributed fifty dollars at any one time, or three dollars within the year, to the funds of said corporation. This election shall take place under the direction of three inspectors, to be appointed by the board of directors, who shall give notice of the time Publication and place of holding such election, by publishing the same in two daily newspapers of the city of Buffalo, for at least two days next preceding said election. The term of office of the eight directors thus elected shall commence on the second Monday of January, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, and the said directors so elected, shall hold their offices respectively for three years. Annually thereafter, there shall be elected in the same manner, the same number of eight directors, who shall enter upon and hold their offices for three years, as herein above provided, in regard to the eight directors elected to fill the vacancies occasioned by the expiration of the term of office of the first class of said diBoard to fill rectors. The board of directors shall have the power and it shall be their duty, to fill all vacancies that may occur in their own body from any cause whatever, and the person so elected to fill a vacancy shall hold his office for the unexpired term of his immediate predecessor in office.

Annual

elections.

vacancies.

Quorum.

Asylum to be built.

Surrender.

S 5. At all the meetings of the board of directors, eight members shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of ordinary business; but no purchase or conveyance of real estate, nor removal from or appointment to office shall be made, without a quorum of at least thirteen directors.

$ 6. The corporation hereby created, shall, so soon as may be practicable, procure within the city of Buffalo, suitable building sites and lands, and erect and maintain thereon an asylum for such children, as under this act, the regulations to be adopted by the board of directors, and the laws of the state, may be intrusted or committed to the care and management of the said corporation; such asylum shall embrace the buildings necessary for the comfortable accommodation of the children therein; for their instruction, moral, intellectual and industrial; and for their general treatment in such manner as may best promote their welfare, and most fully accomplish the beneficent designs and objects of the said corporation; and until such building sites and lands shall be procured, and the permanent buildings of the asylum thereon erected and completed for use, the corporation may procure within the city aforesaid, such temporary accommodation as may be necessary for its purposes.

[For § 7 see Laws of 1857, ch. 729.]

S8. Children entrusted to the said corporation by the voluntary act of their parents or guardians, shall be deemed to be in the lawful charge and custody of the said corporation;

and such surrender shall be evidenced by a writing in form substantially as follows, viz. :

years, born in

CHAP. IV.

"I, A. B., (father, mother, or guardian, as the case may be), Form of C. D. (a boy or girl), aged do hereby surrender and intrust to "The Buffalo Juvenile Asylum," for the period of years, the entire charge, management and control of the said C. D., and do hereby assign to and invest the said corporation with the same powers and control over the said C. D., as those of which I am possessed."

In presence of

discharged.

[For §§ 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, see Laws of 1857, ch. 759.] S16. If at any time after a child shall have been committed Child, how to the said Buffalo juvenile asylum, as above provided for in this act, it shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of the board of directors of the said asylum, that such child was on insufficient cause, false or deficient testimony, or otherwise wrongfully or improvidently so committed, the said board of directors shall, on the application of the parent, guardian, or other protector of such child, discharge the child from the said asylum, and restore it to such parents, guardian or protector; and also, if after a child shall have been properly committed to the said Buffalo juvenile asylum, by virtue and in pursuance of the provisions of this act any circumstances should occur that in the judgment of the board of directors of the asylum would render expedient and proper a discharge of said child from said asylum having a due regard for the welfare of the child and the purposes of the asylum, the said board of directors, on the application of the parents, guardian or protector of such child, may, in their discretion, discharge the child from the said asylum and restore it to its parents, guardian or protector, on such reasonable conditions as the Conditions said board of directors may deem right and proper, or the charge. said board may in their discretion, without any such application, by a resolution passed by at least eight affirmative votes, discharge any such child from the said asylum where there are, in the judgment of the directors voting for such resolution, sufficient reasons therefor other than those in this and the next section particularly specified; but such reasons shall be set forth in such resolution, and copies of every such resolution shall be furnished to the common council of the city of Buffalo at the time of making the annual report thereto, as required by the twenty-fifth section of this act. [For § 17 see Laws of 1857, ch. 759.]

of dis

be bound

$18. The said corporation shall have power, in its discre- Children to tion, to bind out or indenture as clerks or apprentices to some out. profession, trade, or employment, the children entrusted or committed to their charge; and for a shorter or longer period, not exceeding, however, in the case of girls, the age of eighteen years; and, in that of boys, the age of twenty-one years.

$ 19. No person receiving an apprentice under the provi

PART IV. Indentures not to be

assigned.

May be canceled

Complaint

&c.

sions of this act, shall be at liberty to assign or transfer the indenture of apprenticeship, or to let out or hire for any period the services of such apprentice, without the consent in writing of the directors of the said corporation, or of the indenturing committee thereof. In case the master of such apprentice shall be dissatisfied with his or her conduct or behavior, or for any other cause may desire to be relieved from said contract, upon application the said directors may in their discretion, cancel the said indenture of apprenticeship, and resume the charge and management of the child so apprenticed, and shall have the same power and authority in regard to it as before the said indenture was made.

$20. If any master shall be guilty of any cruelty, misusage, of cruelty, refusal or neglect to furnish necessary provisions or clothing, or any other violation of the terms of indenture or contract towards any such child so bound to service, such child may make complaint to the board of directors of the corporation hereby created, or two justices of the peace of the county in which such child is bound to service, or to the mayor, recorder or alderman of any city in which such child is bound to service, or to any two of them, who shall summon the parties before them and examine into, hear and determine said comExamina- plaint; and if upon such examination the said complaint shall appear well founded, they shall, by certificate under their hands, discharge such child from his obligations of service, and restore him or her to the charge or management of the said corporation in the same manner, and with like powers, as before the indenture of such child.

tion.

Choice of

stricted.

$21. No person shall accept from any journeyman or apOccupation. prentice, indentured as aforesaid, any contract or agreement, nor cause him or her to be bound by oath or otherwise during his or her term of service, that such journeyman or apprentice shall not set up his or her trade, profession, or employment, in any particular place, shop, or cellar; nor shall any person exact from any journeyman or apprentice, after his or her term of service has expired, any money or other thing for using or exercising his or her trade, profession or employment in any place.

Certain

void.

S22. Every security given contrary to the provisions conAgreements tained in the last preceding section of this act, shall be void, and any money paid or valuable thing delivered for the consideration, in part or in whole, of any such agreement or exaction, may be recovered back with interest, by the person paying the same; and every person accepting such agreement causing such obligation to be entered into, or exacting money or other thing as aforesaid, shall forfeit one hundred dollars to the apprentice or journeyman from whom the same shall have been received.

Penalty.

Death of master.

$23. Upon the death of any master to whom any child may have been bound to service, under the provisions of this act, the executors or administrators of such master may, with