An Act Authorizing Special Compensation, Credits, and Modification in the Sentence of Prisoners as a Reward for Exceptional Conduct and Workmanship, and for Other Purposes

February 5, 1915

ACT NO. 2489

AN ACT AUTHORIZING SPECIAL COMPENSATION, CREDITS, AND MODIFICATION IN THE SENTENCE OF PRISONERS AS A REWARD FOR EXCEPTIONAL CONDUCT AND WORKMANSHIP, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

SECTION 1. For the purpose of encouraging industrial activity and the earlier release from confinement of those who by their conduct indicate that they have reformed, Insular prisoners who are or become skilled and semi-skilled workmen may receive compensation for their work from the profits accruing to the credit of the industrial division of the Bureau of Prisons by the sale of articles manufactured by the prisoners or from payments made for work performed by them: Provided, That such compensation does not exceed the difference between the gross cost of the prisoner's maintenance and the amount that his services are reasonably worth with the additional proviso, that all prisoners who are in the same conduct and workmanship classifications, regardless of nature of work, shall receive like compensation.

SECTION 2. At least fifty per centum of any amount that may accumulate to the credit of prisoners under this Act shall be withheld until after final discharge, the remainder to be subject to disbursement upon request of the prisoner for the support of dependent members of his family or for such personal use as may be approved by the Director of Prisons: Provided, That for this purpose a larger proportion may be disbursed upon presentation to the Director of Prisons of evidence satisfactory to him of its necessity.

SECTION 3. The Secretary of Public Instruction will promulgate suitable rules defining the requirements for eligibility in conduct and workmanship classifications and ratings as well as fixing the amounts and methods for compensation payments. The rules shall also define the methods governing forfeitures of accrued compensation credits for neglect in work or other misconduct.

SECTION 4. Prisoners receiving by executive approval the classification of penal colonists or trusties employed at work without the surveillance of an armed guard, in addition to the regular good conduct time credits authorized by Act Numbered Fifteen hundred and thirty-three, may be credited with five days for each calendar month during which their work and conduct have been exemplary and while they retain this classification. HECTaA

SECTION 5. Prisoners serving sentences of life imprisonment receiving and retaining the classification of penal colonists or trusties will automatically have the sentence of life imprisonment modified to a sentence of thirty years when receiving the executive approval for this classification upon which the regular credit now authorized by law and special credit authorized in the preceding paragraph, for good conduct, may be made.

SECTION 6. The forfeitures of credits of the special allowance provided in the two preceding sections will be made to accord with the provisions of Act Numbered Fifteen hundred and thirty-three, with the provision that any penal colonist or trusty who is returned to imprisonment for misconduct will forfeit all special credits and modifications in sentence herein authorized, in addition to any other forfeitures or punishments that may be imposed.

SECTION 7. The provisions of this Act as applied in the case of penal colonists and trusties may, by executive approval and upon recommendation of the Director of Prisons, be made applicable to all first-class workmen confined in Bilibid Prison who have earned the privilege of classification as penal colonists or trusties by serving one-fifth of the time sentence as imposed by the court, or seven years in the case of a life-sentenced prisoner, in addition to the compensation allowed, if any of such first-class workmen shall by written petition elect to remain in the industrial division at Bilibid Prison: Provided, That no prisoner shall receive the benefit of this section during the first two years of imprisonment unless authorized by the Director of Prisons for special reasons.

SECTION 8. The benefits accruing under this Act shall not be made applicable to any prisoner who has previously been convicted twice or oftener of any crime or misdemeanor.

SECTION 9. This Act shall be retroactive in so far as it affects the status of prisoners having the classification of penal colonists on the date of its passage, in authorizing the benefits of the credits and modification in sentence made herein from and including the date upon which the classification as penal colonist was conferred in each instance.

SECTION 10. All Acts or parts of Acts in conflict with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed.

SECTION 11. This Act shall become effective as of January first, nineteen hundred and fifteen. HTaSEA

Enacted, February 5, 1915.