Page images
PDF
EPUB

of the board of managers of the village as may seem necessary and proper for the government of such institution and its officers and employees and for the employment, discipline and training of the inmates.

4. Appoint, with the approval of the board of managers, the officers, assistants and employees not otherwise provided for herein, that may be necessary for the economical and efficient management of the Letchworth Village; subject to the approval of the board of managers he shall prescribe their duties and may discharge them at his discretion.

5. Cause full and fair accounts and records of all his doings, and of the business and operation of the village to be kept regularly from time to time in books or on forms provided for that purpose.

6. See that all such accounts and records are properly made up for the annual report to the legislature as required by this act, and present the same to the board of managers, which shall incorporate them into its report to the legislature.

7. Under direction of the managers receive and take into such village all persons legally committed thereto by poor law officers having authority to make such commitments, and cause to be entered in a register kept for the purpose at the time of the commitment and reception of an inmate, the name, age, residence, and such other facts as may be ascertained relative to the origin, condition, peculiarity, or inherited tendencies of such person, and thereafter from time to time add such other information as shall be obtained, so that the register may show as far as possible a complete history of such inmate.

8. On or before the fifth day of each month transmit to the state board of charities a duplicate of the record of commitment and admission of each inmate received into the village and thereafter forward to said state board of charities notice of the discharge, escape, transfer or death of such inmate on or before the fifth day of the month following such discharge, escape, transfer or death.

9. Have power, subject to the supervision and control of the board of managers in the case of the death of any inmate at the village who shall have been maintained therein wholly at public expense, to make or cause to be made at the said Letchworth Vil

lage by a member or members of its medical staff, an autopsy on the body of such patient, provided that such autopsy be made not later than twelve hours after the death of such patient, and in such manner as will cause the least possible mutilation, and provided also that the said Letchworth Village shall print conspicuously upon all application blanks used in the admission of patients to the institution the fact that the officers of said Letchworth Village have the above-stated powers in relation to the making of autopsies.

§ 9. Admission of inmates. There shall be received and gratuitously supported in the Letchworth Village, epileptics and feeble-minded persons needing custodial care, upon the application and commitment of the county superintendents of the poor, commissioners of public charities, or other officers authorized by law to make commitments to existing state institutions for the maintenance of epileptic and feeble-minded persons. The said village shall also receive such epileptic and feeble-minded inmates of existing state charitable institutions, and such other epileptic and feeble-minded persons supported at public expense and needing custodial care, except those who are insane, who shall be transferred to said Letchworth Village in accordance with the provisions of law.

§ 10. Discharge of inmates. The superintendent of the village, with the approval of the managers, or any committee thereof duly empowered to act for the board, shall have the power to discharge inmates sent to the village, through mistaken diagnosis, or for other proper causes, provided that such discharge shall be to the superintendent of the poor, commissioner of public charities or other officer through whose application the inmate was received into the village, and provided further, that should any inmate become insane, such inmate shall be sent to the nearest state hospital of the district of which he was a resident prior to his commitment to the village, in the manner prescribed by law, and provided further, that when any patient has been delivered to the county superintendent of the poor, commissioner of public charities or to the managers or officers of a state hospital or insti

tution, the care and custody of the managers of the Letchworth Village over such inmate shall cease.

§ 11. Notice of opening of the village. When the Letchworth Village shall be ready for the reception of inmates it shall be the duty of the board of managers to send official notice of such fact to the county clerks and the clerks of the boards of supervisors of the respective counties of the state, and to the secretary of the state board of charities, and to the fiscal supervisor, and also to furnish such clerks of counties and clerks of boards of supervisors with suitable blanks for the commitment of inmates to said village.

§ 12. Detention and discharge of inmates; procedure. The following procedure for the detention and discharge of inmates in the village is hereby provided:

1. The village shall receive, when it has accommodation therefor, such mentally incompetent persons as shall be duly committed thereto in accordance with the provisions of law and the rules and regulations of said village, and it shall be the duty of said village and for that purpose it is hereby vested with the authority to detain all such persons so committed including the right to arrest and return any who may escape therefrom, until discharged by the board of managers of said village or by an order of the supreme court of the state of New York, obtained as hereinafter provided.

2. Any inmate of said institution, or any person or corporation interested in any inmate as next of kin, or otherwise, may apply to the board of managers for the discharge of such inmate, by presenting to the said board of managers a petition in writing, duly verified as a pleading in the supreme court, which petition shall set forth the interest of the petitioner in the inmate, and if the same is presented by any other person than the inmate, the grounds or reasons for asking for such discharge and the home, place or surroundings in which it is proposed or intended to place the said inmate, if discharged.

3. Such petition may be presented at any legally constituted meeting of the board of managers of said village, and shall be acted upon by the board at such meeting, or as soon thereafter as

practicable, and the prayer of the petition shall be either granted or refused by the said board of managers.

4. In case the said petition for discharge is denied, the action of the board of managers shall be expressed in a resolution to be adopted by the said board, and said resolution shall embody the grounds or reasons of said board for refusing to grant such discharge, and a copy of such resolution shall be mailed or delivered forthwith to the petitioner, or the attorney presenting the petition to the board.

5. At any time within thirty days after the mailing or delivery of said resolution, as prescribed in subdivision four, the petitioner may cause a notice in writing to be served upon the superintendent of the said village and the attorney-general, to the effect that the said action of the board of managers shall be reviewed by the supreme court at a special term thereof to be held in the judicial district in which the said village is located, not less than eight days after such notice is served, and the notice served upon the attorney-general shall be accompanied by true copies of all papers used upon the application before the board, and of the resolution adopted by the board on said application, and any other papers or documents intended to be presented to the court upon said hearing.

6. Upon receipt of such notice and papers, it shall be the duty of the attorney-general to appear in said proceedings and upon said hearing in court, on behalf of the state of New York, and to render such legal service and give such counsel as may be neces sary to fully advise the court and protect the interests of the state of New York in the premises.

7. The superintendent and board of managers of said village shall furnish to the attorney-general, upon his application, any information, facts or data in their possession which he may require to use upon said hearing.

8. The order granted by the court upon such hearing shall be entered in the office of the clerk of the county of Rockland and a certified copy thereof furnished to the superintendent of the said village and shall be recorded in the records of the said village, and the said inmate shall be discharged or detained according to the terms of said order.

9. The superintendent may grant to a committed patient a parole not exceeding forty-five days, at the expiration of which period said patient must be again placed in the village unless discharged under conditions outlined in foregoing sections. (Added by chapter 586 of the Laws of 1911.)

New York City Reformatory of Misdemeanants. Chapter 32, Laws of 1913.

AN ACT to authorize and empower the city of New York to acquire a site beyond its territorial limits for use of The New York City Reformatory of Misdemeanants under the jurisdiction of the department of correction of the city of New York.

Section 1. The city of New York is authorized and empowered, upon the approval of the board of estimate and apportionment, to acquire, by purchase or condemnation, a farm site, additional lands and rights of way, outside the territorial limits of said city, for use as a part of the New York City Reformatory of Misdemeanants under the jurisdiction of the department of correction of the city of New York. (As amended by chapter 26 of the Laws of 1915.)

§ 2. Any action which shall have been taken by the board of estimate and apportionment, and by the board of aldermen of the city of New York, at the date of the passage of this act, authoriz ing the acquisition of a site and the erection of buildings thereon for the use and purpose aforesaid, shall be and remain applicable to the acquisition of a site beyond the territorial limits of the city of New York under this act.

New York State Reformatory for Women at Bedford. Chapter 659, Laws of 1910.

§ 89. Commitments to state reformatory for women at Bedford. Whenever a woman actually or apparently between the ages of sixteen and thirty is convicted in the city of New York of habitual drunkenness, of being a common prostitute, of soliciting on public streets or places for purposes of prostitution, of frequenting disorderly houses or houses of prostitution, or of vagrancy under subdivisions three or four of section eight hundred

« PreviousContinue »