Chap. 0461 An Act relative to the system of compensation for inmates of certain state penal institutions in connection with prison industries and providing for the disposition of surplus receipts therefrom.

Be it enacted, etc., as follows:

Section 1. Chapter one hundred and twenty-seven of the General Laws is hereby amended by striking out section forty-eight A, as appearing in the Tercentenary Edition, and inserting in place thereof the following section: - Section 4$A. The commissioner may establish a system of compensation for inmates at the state penal institutions wherein an industrial program is established to be paid out of the profits from industries in any or all such institutions. The comptroller shall determine the methods of computation of profits arising out of the manufacture of prison products and, upon the recommendation of the warden or superintendent, the commissioner shall establish a graduated scale of compensation to be paid inmates in accordance with their skill and industry, and the commissioner shall establish, and may at any time amend or annul, rules and regulations for carrying out the purposes of this section; provided, that compensation shall be paid to inmates only when and if the comptroller is of the opinion that profits from prison industries are such that compensation should be paid. No money shall be paid directly to any inmate during the term of his imprisonment.

The warden or superintendent, as trustee, may pay monthly, or at other periods determined by said rules and regulations, one half of the money so earned by any inmate to his dependents, if any, directly or through the board of public welfare of the city or town chargeable or likely to become chargeable for the support of such dependents; and, if such money is paid over directly to such dependents, notice shall be sent by the warden or superintendent of the institution to the board of public welfare of such city or town. An amount not exceeding twenty-five per cent of the money so earned within any period may be expended on behalf of the inmate for articles for his own use, the same to be purchased with the approval of the warden or superintendent of the institution. The remainder of the moneys so earned, after deducting amounts paid over to or for the benefit of his dependents, if any, and amounts expended on his behalf as aforesaid, shall be accumulated to the credit of the inmate and shall be deposited by the warden or superintendent, as trustee, in a bank approved by the state treasurer and paid

to the inmate upon his release from such institution in such instalments and at such times as may be prescribed in such rules or regulations.

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections fifty-nine and seventy, the comptroller shall determine the amounts to be expended from the prison industry funds for the rearrangement or enlargement of shops and providing storage room needed for the manufacturing of prison goods in an established industry.

Section 2. Said chapter one hundred and twenty-seven is hereby further amended by striking out section seventy-one, as most recently amended by section seventeen of chapter three hundred and forty-four of the acts of nineteen hundred and forty-one, and inserting in place thereof the following section: - Section 71. At least once in each month the receipts from the labor of prisoners in the state prison, the Massachusetts reformatory, the reformatory for women, the state prison colony and the state farm shall be paid to the commonwealth, and the receipts from the labor of prisoners in a jail or house of correction to the county, and so much thereof as is necessary to pay the expenses of maintaining the industries in said institutions shall be expended from the state or county treasury for that purpose, but not until schedules of such expenses have been sworn to by the warden or superintendent and approved by the commissioner. Whenever, in the opinion of the comptroller, the accumulated funds in the state treasury from the receipts from the labor of prisoners in the state prison, the Massachusetts reformatory, the reformatory for women, the state prison colony and the state farm exceed the sums necessary to pay the expense of maintaming the industries by which they were produced, the comptroller shall direct that the surplus be transferred from these accounts into the general fund or ordinary revenue of the commonwealth. Whenever in the opinion of the master or keeper of a jail or house of correction and the county commissioners and county treasurer, the accumulated funds in the county treasury from the receipts from the labor of prisoners in jails and houses of correction exceed the sums necessary to pay the expenses of maintaining the industries by which they were produced, the master or keeper of a jail or house of correction and the county commissioners and county treasurer shall direct that the surplus shall be transferred into the general revenue of the county. Receipts from any of the institutions shall be applied to paying the expenses of the industries in that institution only, except that the combined net receipts accruing from the industries established at the state prison, the Massachusetts reformatory, the reformatory for women, the state prison colony and the state farm may be used, with the approval of the comptroller, to make payments of compensation as provided in section forty-eight A.

The warden or superintendent of the state prison, the Massachusetts reformatory, the reformatory for women,

the state prison colony and the state farm shall, as often as he has in his possession money to the amount of ten thousand dollars which he has received under the provisions of sections fifty-three to sixty-seven, inclusive, pay it to the commonwealth; and the master or keeper of a jail or house of correction shall, as often as he has in his possession such money to the amount of five thousand dollars, pay it into the county treasury. Approved June 6, 1946.