An Act to Define and Fix the Status of Prisoners Confined in the Iwahig Penal Colony, and for Other Purposes

September 23, 1907

ACT NO. 1723

AN ACT TO DEFINE AND FIX THE STATUS OF PRISONERS CONFINED IN THE IWAHIG PENAL COLONY, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

SECTION 1. Subject to regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Public Instruction, any prisoner confined at the Iwahig penal colony may be provisionally granted a suitable plot of land within the reservation for the purpose of cultivating and improving the same, and may be furnished with such tools, implements, and agricultural supplies as may be deemed necessary for the proper cultivation of said land. Such prisoners, under regulations approved by the Secretary of Public Instruction, may also be allowed to have their wives, children, and women to whom they are to be married, transported to the Iwahig penal colony at Government expense and to have their families live on the reservation. Prisoners' families shall be subject to the rules and regulations of the colony. The privilege hereby granted certain prisoners of having their families live with them at the Iwahig penal colony may be revoked at any time by order of the superintendent of the colony. cSEDTC

SECTION 2. Prisoners' families transported to the Iwahig penal colony under the preceding section may be subsisted from the general products of the colony, under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the superintendent, with the approval of the Secretary of Public Instruction, until such time as the land cultivated by prisoners having families at the colony shall be sufficiently productive to support said families.

SECTION 3. Prisoners confined at the Iwahig penal colony may be divided into classes and graded according to conduct, efficiency, and length of service, and may receive such extraordinary privileges as in the judgment of the superintendent of the colony their conduct, behavior, habits of industry, and length of service may justify, subject always to the regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Public Instruction.

SECTION 4. Subject to the approval of the Secretary of Public Instruction, the superintendent of the Iwahig penal colony is hereby authorized to sell the products of the colony, manufactured or otherwise, and to allow to prisoners of the higher grades or classes such percentage of the value of said products as may be approved by the Secretary of Public Instruction.

SECTION 5. In addition to the subsistence for prisoners' wives and children authorized by section two of this Act, the superintendent of the colony may furnish a special reward to such prisoners confined at the Iwahig penal colony, as in his opinion may merit the same, a reasonable amount of clothing and ordinary household supplies for the families of such prisoners as are permitted to have their families in the colony, said clothing and supplies to be paid for out of the regular appropriation for the maintenance of the Iwahig penal colony.

SECTION 6. Prisoners occupying positions of special trust in the Iwahig penal colony may be granted by the superintendent of the colony, with the approval of the Secretary of Public Instruction, a monthly allowance in cash, not to exceed five pesos, or an equivalent amount of supplies from the general store, to be paid or paid for from the regular appropriation for contingent expenses of the Iwahig penal colony.

SECTION 7. The superintendent of the Iwahig penal colony shall be ex-officio justice of the peace, and shall, within the limits of the colony, have the jurisdiction and all powers conferred upon justices of the peace by the laws of the Philippine Islands.

SECTION 8. The Secretary of Public Instruction is hereby authorized to promulgate such rules and regulations, not inconsistent with law, as he may deem advisable for the better conduct and administration of the Iwahig penal colony.

SECTION 9. On the expiration of the sentence of any prisoner confined at the Iwahig penal colony he may, subject to the regulations, be allowed to continue to reside upon the reservation and to cultivate land and occupy a house to be designated and selected by the superintendent of the penal colony.

SECTION 10. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred.

SECTION 11. This Act shall take effect on its passage.

ENACTED, September 23, 1907.