Maryland. A curfew law is enacted to apply to incorporated towns of Kent County, forbidding the presence of any minor under 15 on the streets or in public places after 9 p. m. from October 1 to June 1, and after 10 p. m. during the other months, unless he is accompanied by an adult or is going to or from home or place of employment in the course of his occupation.

1916 C 2.

Massachusetts.-The State board of charity is instructed to investigate whether it would be desirable for the Commonwealth to assume the control and care of all juvenile offenders and to acquire the buildings and grounds of the Suffolk School for Boys [formerly used as truant school in Boston]. The board is to report in January, 1917, with drafts of such legislation as it may recommend.

1916 Resolves C 46.

Mississippi.—An act is passed providing for special court procedure in the case of any "destitute, abandoned, or delinquent " child under 18, and authorizing the establishment of a State school for such children. [This act applies, therefore, not only to "delinquent" but to "neglected" children, and is closely related in some respects to the acts classified under "Juvenile courts." The procedure, however, is optional, and the act is chiefly concerned with delinquents.] There was formerly no special procedure or institution for delinquent minors. A State industrial and training school is to be established, to which any child under 18 who is delinquent, destitute, or in evil environment may be committed. The school is to be governed by a board of five trustees appointed by the governor with advice of the senate, two for a term of two years and three for a term of five years, who shall report biennially to the State legislature. Women are specifically eligible to appointment as members of the board.

Court proceedings in cases concerning children under 18 years of age may be by petition to a chancery or circuit judge, any one of whom has jurisdiction over any case from any county in his district with power to act in vacation as well as during term of court. Juvenile cases are to be given precedence over all others except habeas corpus proceedings. The parent or guardian named in the petition is summoned to appear with the child for a hearing, from which the public may be excluded; and the clerk may, at his discretion, direct an officer of the court to bring the child at once, in which case he may admit child to bail or arrange for his custody; in no case shall he place the child in jail pending trial. The clerk of the court or the chief probation officer, if there be one, may arrange for detention rooms with any person or association, or the board of county supervisors may provide permanent detention rooms from county funds.

The judge is given wide discretion in dealing with a child; he may commit to the State industrial and training school or to any other institution subject to inspection of the court; he may release on parole or probation; or he may remand the case of a delinquent child to the circuit court for investigation by the grand jury. In the last case the judge may commit the child to jail.

Court costs are to be taxed against parent or guardian, and in case of commitment to any person or to any institution other than the Mississippi Industrial and Training School a sum for maintenance may be required of parent or other person having custody of the child at the discretion of the judge.

When a child under 18 is brought before any court for misdemeanor or violation of law, the case may be transferred to the chancery judge. Separate records shall be kept for all juvenile cases.

A child sent to the State industrial and training school may be released subject to approval of the committing judge or paroled by the superintendent at any time; if committed after conviction for crime, however, commitment is for a definite period and child may be released or paroled only by order of the court. No child shall be kept at the school after the age of 21 years.

Probation officers may be appointed at the discretion of the chancellor for any or all counties of his district, or by the municipal authorities for any municipality.

Any adult, whether parent, guardian, or other person, responsible for or contributing to delinquency or neglect of a child may be required by the court before which the child is brought to do or omit to do any acts which the judge considers necessary for the welfare of the child, under penalty of punishment for contempt of

court.

Appeals from decisions of the court concerning custody of child shall be in the manner provided in civil cases.

1916 C 111.

New York.-Provision is made for the complete separation of minor prisoners from adult prisoners in county penitentaries.

1916 C 394 amending C L 1909 (Prison) C 43 by adding s 325.

South Carolina.-All matters relating to the management of the South Carolina Industrial School [for white boys] are placed under the exclusive supervision and control of its board of trustees; and the dismissal from the institution of boys under the age of 21 now may be granted only by board of trustees upon recommendation of superintendent of the school. Dismissal was formerly permitted by the board of trustees alone or by a judge of the supreme court or of a circuit court.

1916 No 509 amending 1912 Criminal Code s 992, s 993 as amended by 1912 No 298.

Virginia. The number of negro minors under the charge of the Negro Reformatory Association of Virginia for whose care compensation may be charged to the Commonwealth is increased from 150 to 200.

1916 C 35 amending Code 1904 s 4173e subsection 5 as amended by 1908 C 371.

MENTAL DEFECTIVES.

See also Juvenile courts, Maryland, p. 36, and Porto Rico, p. 39.

Kentucky. The governor is authorized to appoint a nonsalaried commission of five persons to study feeble-mindedness in the State. This commission is to determine the number of feeble-minded persons, the cost to the Commonwealth of maintaining them, the causes of feeble-mindedness, the effect of marriage of defectives and delinquents upon the problem, and the means the State should employ to lessen the seriousness of the problem. The commission has power to employ a salaried investigator, but it is expressly provided that neither salary of investigator nor expenses incurred by the commission shall be paid by the Commonwealth. The commission is to report to the governor with recommendations concerning legislation not later than June 1, 1917.

1916 C 146.

Maryland. More specific provisions are made for securing from parents, guardians, or others legally liable for support, payment for the maintenance, in whole or in part, of such inmates of the Maryland Asylum and Training School for Feeble-minded as are not totally indigent. The duty to secure information as to the financial cendition of patients and relatives and to determine the amount to be paid in each case (not to exceed, however, $20 per month), together with authority to enforce collection, is placed with the orphans' court or with the county commissioners of the county in which the patient resides. [Both the orphans' court and the county commissioners formerly had and still retain the right to commit patients to this institution.]

1916 C 566 ss 3 and 5 amending A C 1911 v 2 (1911) art 59 by adding ss 3A, 3B, 46A, 46B.

A State commission, consisting of the State lunacy commission and the State board of public works, is appointed to report to the legislature of 1918 on the advisability of purchasing, for a State hospital for insane and feeble-minded persons in western Maryland, the property in Allegany County now being used as a county home for insane and feeble-minded [the last such county home in the State]. The county commissioners of Allegany County are authorized to sell the property.

1916 C 642.

Massachusetts.-The State board of insanity is abolished and there is substituted for it a commission on mental diseases, which has all the powers and duties of the former board. This commission is to consist of five members appointed by the governor. The director and at least two associate members shall be physicians expert in the care of the insane. The director shall receive not more than $7,500 salary and the others shall serve without compensation. The board of insanity had three members, all salaried, one of whom was an expert. In addition to performing duties of former board of insanity, commission shall inspect every institution under its supervision at least once a year, and oftener if the governor directs, and every patient shall be given opportunity for an interview with the visiting members or agents of the commission. Every private hospital for the feeble-minded, epileptic, etc., must be licensed annually by the commission. The former law (1914) provided for an annual license of such hospitals established thereafter, but did not require the annual licensing of older institutions.

1916 C 285. Compare 1914 C 762.

The procedure for the commitment of feeble-minded persons to the Massachusetts School for Feeble-minded [at Waverley] and to the Wrentham State School is amended. Any physician who certifies to a judge of probate [court having jurisdiction in commitment] concerning the mental condition of an alleged feeble-minded person shall have examined the patient within 5 days of signing the certificate; the certificate must bear a date not more than 10 days earlier than the order of commitment; and the order of commitment is void if the patient is not received at the school within 30 days after the date of the order. The law includes a similar amendment concerning a physician's certificate for a voluntary patient. The inmate himself is now permitted to make application for release.

1916 C 122 amending 1909 C 504 ss 63, 64, 78-80.

The State board of insanity [commission on mental diseases] is authorized to establish at Belchertown a new school for the feebleminded. An appropriation of $150,000 is made, but it is provided that no expense shall be incurred until the plans of construction and an outline plan for future development have been approved by the governor and council. The labor of patients under the control of the trustees of the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-minded shall be utilized so far as possible. Massachusetts has already two State schools for the feeble-minded, the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-minded at Waverley and the Wrentham State School.

1916 Resolves C 160. Compare 1909 C 504 ss 14, 59-65. See also 1916 C 285, summarized above.

The construction of a recreation building at the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-minded is authorized, and the sum of $23,700 is appropriated for the purpose.

1916 Resolves C 127.

New Jersey. The establishment of State colonies for feebleminded males is authorized. These patients formerly were cared for at the village for epileptics, though by an act of 1915 admission of feeble-minded males to the State home for feeble-minded women was permitted. The colonies are to be under a nonsalaried board of managers, consisting of the commissioner of charities and corrections and four other persons appointed by the governor. Admission shall be in the manner already provided by law for the admission of feeble-minded persons to institutions. The act includes an appropriation of $25,000.

It is provided that the cost of maintaining those patients committed to the village for epileptics who are not indigent shall be paid in whole or in part from the patient's estate or by certain specified relatives. The amount is to be determined in each individual case by the committing court, and in no case shall it exceed the minimum paid by private patients.

1916 C 95 supplementing CS 1910 v 4 (State Village for Epileptics) ss 1-31 p 4961 as amended by 1914 C 224.

The commission for the study of mental defectives is continued, and it is directed to report to the legislature of 1917.

1916 Joint Resolution No 1. See 1913 Joint Resolution No 5 and 1915 Joint Resolution No 1.

New York. The superintendent of the Rome State Custodial Asylum [for feeble-minded and idiots] is authorized to grant to groups of inmates parole or leave of absence to do domestic, agricultural, or forestry work under specified State supervision, such action to be subject to the approval of the board of managers of the asylum. The expense connected therewith is to be met by the asylum. Formerly there was merely a general provision for parole by the superintendent subject to rules of the board of managers of the asylum.

1916 C 71 amending C L 1909 (State Charities) C 55 s 95 as amended by 1912 C 448 by adding subdivision 11.

It is made a misdemeanor to entice away or assist in the escape of an inmate of any public charitable institution for the feeble-minded, epileptic, or insane, or of a reform school; or, knowing a person to be such an inmate, to promise to provide a home for, or to pay for