Chap. 0414 An Act relative to making goods for the use of public institutions by the labor of prisoners.

Be it enacted, etc., as follows:

Section 1. For the purpose of determining the styles, designs and qualities of articles and materials to be made by the labor of prisoners for use in the public institutions in accordance with section forty-five of chapter two hundred and twenty-five of the Revised Laws, the superintendents of institutions for the insane, thc superintendents of other charitable institutions, and the officers in charge of penal and reformatory institutions, respectively, shall hold meetings annually in October. The day and place of each of said meetings shall be assigned by the prison commissioners who shall give to the officers concerned at least ten days' notice thereof.    If a superintendent or officer in
charge is unable to be present at a meeting he may delegate one of his assistants to attend in his behalf. Each meeting shall organize by the choice of a chairman and clerk; and within one week after the meeting, these officers shall formally notify the prison commissioners of the styles, designs and qualities adopted by the meeting for use in each class of institutions. The expense of attending any of said meetings shall be repaid to the respective officers in the same way as other travelling expenses are paid; and any other expense of the meetings shall be paid from the Prison Industries Eund upon the approval of the prison commissioners.
Section 2. In November of each year the prison commissioners shall issue to said superintendents and officers in charge a descriptive list of the styles, designs and qualities of said articles and materials; and the requisitions named in section fifty-four of chapter two hundred and twenty-five of the Revised Laws shall conform to the said list, unless it appears that the needs of an institution demand a special style, design or quality. Any difference between the prison officials and the institutions in regard to styles, designs and qualities shall be submitted to arbitrators whose decision shall be final. One of said arbitrators shall be named on behalf of the prison by the chairman of the prison commissioners, one by the principal officer of the other institution concerned, and one by agreement of the other two. The arbitrators shall be chosen from the official service and shall receive no compensation for performance of any duty under this act; but their actual and necessary expenses shall be paid by the prison or other institution against which, their award is given.
Section 3. Annually in December the principal officers of all public institutions included by the terms of section forty-five of chapter two hundred and twenty-five of the Revised Laws, shall send to the prison commissioners an estimate of the quantities of the articles and materials that will be needed for their respective institutions during the ensuing calendar year. Said estimates shall generally observe the styles, designs and qualities named in the descriptive list; and if any special style is desired in considerable quantity, the estimate shall contain a request that the prison commissioners will arrange for the manufacture of such special articles as may be needed.
Section 4. Tlie price of all articles and materials supplied by the prisons to the public institutions named in this act shall conform as nearly as may be to the wholesale market rates for similar goods manufactured outside of the prisons. Any difference of opinion in regard to price may be submitted to arbitration in the manner provided in section two of this act.
Section 5. In January of each year the prison commissioners shall send to the auditor of the commonwealth, to the auditing and disbursing officers of the several counties, and to the auditor and treasurer of each city having a population of forty thousand inhabitants, a list of the articles and materials that can be produced by the labor of prisoners for the use of public institutions named in this act. No bill for any such articles or materials purchased for the use of said institutions otherwise than from a prison, or from another institution, shall be allowed or paid unless it is accompanied by a certificate from the prison commissioners showing that a requisition therefor has been made and that the goods cannot be supplied from the prisons.
Section 6. Section fifty-five of chapter two hundred and twenty-five of the Revised Laws and all acts and parts of acts inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed ; and nothing in section thirty of chapter four hundred and eighty-six of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and nine, relative to the administration of the city of Boston, shall affect the purchase from the prisons of such articles and materials as may be needed by the public institutions of that city. Approved April 10, 1910.