HOSPITALS. See MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS; STATE HOSPITAL. 1. Support of poor patients. 2. What amount to be allowed. 3. Restricted to free hospitals. 4. Endowed hospitals excluded. 5. Support of poor patients who have no legal settlement. 6. Appointment of female physicians in certain To have control of female inmates. cases. 21 May 1874 § 1. P. L. 220. Support of poor patients. Ibid. § 2. What amount to be allowed. Ibid. § 8. Restricted to free hospitals. Ibid. § 4. 1. It shall be lawful for the managers or trustees of any hospital for the cure of the sick and injured, which is now or may hereafter be established and duly incorporated, in any city or borough of this commonwealth, containing a population of not less than twenty thousand inhabitants, to make requisitions, quarterly, upon the commissioners of the county in which such hospital may be situated, for the support of such poor patients under treatment in such hospital as are unable to pay for their treatment; for which requisitions the said commissioners shall grant orders upon the treasurer of the county, who shall pay the same to the treasurer of such hospital. 2. The sum (to) be allowed for the support and treatment of any poor patient shall not exceed one dollar per day; nor shall a greater amount than five thousand dollars be paid out of the county treasury, to any such hospital, in any one year. 3. Such hospital shall not be under the control of or owned by any religious sect or denomination, but shall be open for the reception and treatment of sick and injured citizens of Pennsylvania, without regard to creed, sex or race; and a report of its operations shall be made to the board of public charities of this commonwealth, at such times and in such manner as the said board may require. 4. This act shall not apply to any hospital which has an endowment fund exEndowed hospitals ceeding five thousand dollars per annum, or other means of support, except voluntary contributions and pay from patients under treatment; nor to any hospital unless it and the land appurtenant to it are owned in fee-simple by the corporation, and are free from incumbrance. excluded. Ibid. § 5. Support of poor no legal settle ments. 5. When any sick or injured person shall be received into any such hospital, being indigent and unable to pay for his or her proper medical or surgical treatpatients who have ment, and who has no legal settlement in the county in which said hospital is or may be situated, it shall be the duty of the managers or trustees of said hospital to notify the directors or overseers of the poor of the said county, who shall thereupon notify the directors or overseers of the poor of the county or township in which such sick or injured person has a legal settlement, and they shall be liable for all reasonable charges incurred for the care of said patient, not exceeding one dollar per day: Provided, That when any such poor person shall be received into any such hospital, who has not a legal settlement in the poor district in which such hospital shall be situate, notice that such person is under treatment in such hospital shall be given to the overseers of the poor of the county or district in which such poor person has a legal settlement, within thirty days after he or she shall be received into such hospital, or the said county or district shall not be liable to pay for more than thirty days' treatment in any such hospital; and the overseers of the poor of the district in which (any) poor person shall have a legal settlement shall have the right to take every such person from any such hospital to their own district for treatment and support, if they shall see fit. 4 June 1879 § 1. Appointment of female physicians in certain 6. In all hospitals or asylums now built or hereafter to be built, and under the control of the state, and in which male and female insane patients are received for treatment, the trustees of said asylums or hospitals may appoint a skilful female physician, who shall reside in said asylum or hospital, and who shall have the medTo have control of ical control of said female inmates, who shall report to the superintendent and also to the trustees. cases. female inmates. Ibid. § 2. Term of office. 26 April 1893 § 1. P. L. 24. Board of health may license lyingin hospital. 7. Said female physician shall be appointed by said trustees for a term not exceeding five years, and shall not be subject to removal within that term, except for infidelity to the trust reposed, or for incompetency. 8. It shall be lawful for the board of health of any locality to license any person or persons, other than an institution duly incorporated for such purpose, to establish and keep a lying-in hospital, ward or other private place for the reception, care and treatment of women in labor, upon written application filed with the said board, accompanied by the indorsement of six or more reputable persons, citizens of the county where such hospital may be situated, who shall certify to the respectability of the applicant and that the hospital, hospital ward or other private place shall only be used for legitimate, moral and charitable purposes; and if tinue in force. § 1. after due inquiry of such board of health, it is believed that the applicant is a 26 April 1893 private place shall be subject to the visitation or inspection at any time by the Visitation. Ibid. § 2. 9. The proprietor of every hospital, hospital ward or other private place for lying-in purposes to which a license has been granted according to section one Births to be reof this act shall, within five days after the birth of any child, report to the said ported to board of board of health the date and place of such birth, the name, sex and color of the health. child. Ibid. § 3. 10. Whoever shall violate the provisions of section one of this act by keeping a hospital, hospital ward or other private place for lying-in purposes for hire or Penalties. reward, without license, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and for the first offence, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars, and for the second offence, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two hundred dollars and imprisonment of not more than one year, or either or both, at the discretion of the court. 11. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed. Ibid. § 4. Repeal. HOTEL COMPANIES. 1. Powers of hotel companies. P. L. 95. 1. Companies incorporated under the provisions of this act, or similar com- 29 April 1874 § 36. panies already incorporated and accepting the same, for holding, leasing and selling real estate, or for the establishment and maintenance of a hotel or boarding-house, Powers of hotel or opera and market-house, hotel and drove-yard, or both, any or either, shall companies. have the right and power to take, receive, hold and enjoy, either by conveyance, (in) fee-simple or for any less estate, or upon ground-rent, or for both, all the buildings, lots of lands, premises (and) appurtenances necessary to the successful maintenance and carrying on of such business; shall have the power to execute the necessary and proper covenant for securing the payment of ground-rent on any of such lands and premises; shall have power to sell and convey, let or lease, all or any parts of said lots, or the tenements and buildings thereon erected, either for cash or on ground-rent, or partly for cash and partly on ground-rent, and shall have power to hold or erect such buildings, fixtures and appurtenances, and procure such furniture and equipments, as may be necessary for the success of its business. And the said corporation may borrow money, in the manner provided in section thirteen of this act, to an amount equal to the capital stock of the company paid up, and secure the same by mortgage upon the said lots, buildings and fixtures and appurtenances.(t) HOUSE OF CORRECTION. See CRIMES; MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS. I. OF THE BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS. 1. Councils may provide for establishment. 2. Asylum for inebriates. 3. Additional improvements. 4. Railroad connections. II. RULES OF MANAGEMENT. 5. Monthly requisition. 6. Councils to supply deficiency. 7. Powers of department. 8. Yearly estimate to councils. III. COMMITMENTS. 9. Regulation of inmates. Commitment of vagrants, habitual drunkards and disorderly persons. 14 April 1868 § 1. P. L. 1092. I. Of the buildings and grounds. 1. It shall and may be lawful for the select and common council of the city of Philadelphia to provide by ordinance for the establishment in said city of a house Councils may pro- of correction and employment, and to erect suitable buildings for the organization and management thereof. vide for establishment. 2 June 1871 § 14. P. L. 1801. Asylum for inebriates. Ibid. § 2. Additional improvements. Ibid. Railroad connection. Ibid. § 10. Monthly requisition. Ibid. § 11. Councils to supply deficiency. 2. The [department of charities and corrections] (u) may, if in their judgment they regard it as necessary, erect, establish and maintain a separate building upon their grounds as an asylum for inebriates, to which the mayor, aldermen, judges of the court of quarter sessions may commit for such a length of time as in their judgment may seem proper; and those inebriates who are able, or who have friends able, to pay for their board and clothing, shall be admitted and charged such an amount per week as the [department] may direct: Provided, This shall be a separate building, to be known as the hospital department, in which all aged and sick persons, including inebriates, shall be treated; and when such persons are relieved and able to perform service, they may be discharged from custody, unless they may prefer to be transferred to the labor department and work at their trade or some profitable employment, from which profits their expenses shall be deducted and the balance paid to them on discharge, for the purpose of aiding them in being reinstated in society. 3. Whenever the [department] shall desire to make any additional permanent improvement or purchase additional ground, and shall recommend that the same be done, and after the committee of councils of Philadelphia on house of correction shall indorse the said recommendation, then the councils of the city of Philadelphia shall make all necessary appropriations asked for by the said [department] for the purpose so recommended; and the [said department] shall have power to superintend and direct the erection, completion and furnishing of said buildings during the progress of the said work. 4. The said [department] may extend from their property a single track railroad along and over such lands as may intervene between their ground and the Philadelphia and Trenton railroad company, and connect therewith: Provided, The said railroad company assent thereto (the distance of the said road not to exceed two thousand yards), and to purchase right of way over the land to Philadelphia and Trenton railroad and to erect wharves upon their property. II. Rules of management. 5. The superintendent shall make a monthly requisition on the [department] for all articles which he shall deem necessary for the said institution, and such as shall be approved by them shall be purchased; the superintendent shall, once in every month, report to the [department] the number of persons committed, discharged, sick, dead, or remaining in the institution, also the quality and kind of labor performed; and the [department] shall transmit annually, to the councils of Philadelphia, a condensed statement of the affairs of the institution. 6. For any deficiency in furnishing, keeping and maintaining said house of correction, employment and reformation, in conformity with the provisions of this act, the [department is] authorized to apply to the said city councils for such sum or sums as shall be necessary, and the said city councils are hereby directed to appropriate the said sum or sums deemed necessary. (u) See tit. "Municipal Corporations - First Class." 7. The same power and authority that are given by ordinance of councils or 2 June 1871 § 15. acts of assembly to the guardians of the poor, prison inspectors and managers of P. L. 1301. the house of refuge of the city of Philadelphia are hereby extended to the [depart- Powers of department of charities and corrections]. 8. The [department] shall, on or before the first day of November of each year, submit to councils a statement of the sums necessary for the maintenance of the house of correction, employment and reformation for the ensuing term. III. Commitments.(v) ment. Ibid. § 18. Yearly estimate to councils. P. L. 1301. 9. [The department] shall have full and entire control to regulate the inmates 2 June 1871 § 2. therein, and shall at such times as they think proper, certify to the court of quarter sessions, which court and the inspectors of the Philadelphia county prison respec- Regulation of tively shall thereafter commit to the said house of correction, employment and inmates. reformation, such able-bodied paupers and vagrants (w) as may have been committed or sentenced to be confined in the county prison for a period of not less than three months; and it shall be the duty of the said judges of the court of quarter Commitment of sessions and the inspectors of the Philadelphia county prison to commit to said vagrants, habitual house of correction, employment and reformation all vagrants, habitual drunkards, walkers and disdrunkards, streetstreet-walkers and disorderly persons, adults or minors, whom they may deem best orderly persons. to so confine; and it shall be the duty of the managers of the Blockley almshouse, managers of the poor for the township of Germantown, managers of Lower Dublin and Oxford poorhouse, to transfer, within twenty-four hours after entrance in said almshouse, all able-bodied paupers, (2) adults or minors, except such as may be necessary to employ in the service of said almshouses. Ibid. § 3. Regulation of 10. [The directors of the department of charities and corrections] or any one of them, may commit thereto any and all persons who are willing to be so committed; and the mayor of the city of Philadelphia, the inspectors of the county commitments. prison, and all committing magistrates in the city and county of Philadelphia, may and they are hereby authorized to commit to said house of correction, employment and reformation, for any period of time not less than three, nor more than twelve months, all or any person or persons who, under existing laws, are liable to be committed to places of confinement, who shall apply to them for such purpose; all persons, adults or minors, that may hereafter be convicted, according to the existing laws of this commonwealth, before the mayor, or any alderman of the city of Philadelphia, as a vagrant, drunkard or disorderly street-walker, shall be sentenced to suffer confinement in the said house of correction, employment or reformation for the terms hereinafter mentioned, and to be fed, clothed and treated in the manner hereinafter mentioned; and any minors not under sixteen years of age, except by permission of the board of managers, absenting themselves from school, or who shall disobey their parents' command or be found idle in the streets, may be arrested, upon the complaint of the parents of said minor, or upon the complaint of any citizen, and after the examination of the case, if the mayor, or magistrate, shall deem the charges sustained, he shall commit the said minor to the house of correction, employment and reformation for such length of time as he may regard proper: Provided, That the time for incarceration for a boy shall not exceed his maturity, twenty-one years of age, nor a girl beyond the age of eighteen years, except in cases where a commitment for the time heretofore named, of not less than three months, nor more than twelve months, it would exceed the ages specified; and [the department] shall have power, in its discretion, to place the said children committed to their care, during the time of commitment of the said children, at such employments, and cause them to be instructed in such branches of useful knowledge as may be suited to their years and capacities, and to place them at such work as they may be able to do, and to bind them out to such tradesmen or employers as may offer to receive them until the expiration of their commitment, under such regulations and conditions as the managers may agree upon. Ibid. § 4. 11. All children, not under the age of sixteen years, deserting their homes without good and sufficient cause, or keeping company with dissolute or vicious persons, Disorderly chilagainst the lawful commands of their fathers, mothers or guardians or other person dren defined. standing in the place of a parent, shall be deemed disorderly children. Ibid. § 5. 12. Upon complaint made on oath to any police magistrate or justice of the peace against any child within the city of Philadelphia, not under the age of sixteen, by his or her parent or guardian, or other person standing to him or her in Warrants for chilplace of a parent, as being disorderly, such magistrate or justice shall issue his dren over sixteen warrant for the apprehension of the offender, and cause him or her to be brought years of age. before himself or any other police magistrate or justice for examination. 13. If such magistrate or justice be satisfied by competent testimony, that such (v) See tit. "Crimes," sub-tit. "Tramps." (c) Magistrates may commit vagrants to the house of correction or county prison, as they see fit. See War. Op. 1885, 32, which also contains a summary of the acts regulating the commitment of vagrants. But Ibid. § 6. they have no authority to commit vagrants to the almshouse. West's Op. 23 June 1880; 1883, 52. (2) All able-bodied paupers should be transferred in twenty-four hours from the almshouse to the house of correction. West's Op. 1883, 53. P. L. 1801. Commitment of children. 2 June 1971 § 6. person is a disorderly child within the description aforesaid, he shall make up and sign a record of conviction thereof, and shall, by warrant under his hand, commit such person to the house of correction, employment and reformation; and the powers and duties of the said managers in relation to the said children shall be the same in all things as are prescribed as to other minors received by them; and it shall be the duty of such magistrate or justice as aforesaid, in addition to the record of conviction, to annex the names and residences of the different witnesses examined before him, and the substance of the testimony given by them respectively on which the said conviction was founded: Provided, That any person committed shall have the same right of appeal as is now secured by law to persons convicted of criminal offences; but on such appeal mere informality in the issuing of any warrant shall not be held to be sufficient cause for granting a discharge. Ibid. § 12. Terms of commitments. Ibid. § 13. Habeas corpus. 2 June 1871 § 7. P. L. 1801. to work. 14. Every adult person committed to the house of correction, employment and reformation, of the city of Philadelphia, shåll for the first time be committed for a term of not less than three months nor more than one year; for the second time shall be committed for a term of not less than nine months nor more than eighteen months; for the third time for a term of not less than eighteen months nor more than twenty-four months; and for four times, or at any time thereafter, for a term of not more nor less than twenty-four months; and said board of managers shall have discretionary power to discharge the said inmates. (y) 15. Any person committed to the said house of correction, employment and reformation, by any other authority than the court of quarter sessions of the peace of the city and county of Philadelphia, may apply for a writ of habeas corpus to any judge of the said court, and upon return thereof, if such judge shall deem there is sufficient or reasonable ground for granting the same, he shall enter upon a rehearing of the evidence, and either discharge the individual, modify or confirm the commitment. IV. Discipline of inmates. 16. Every person in the custody of the said board of managers, not disqualified by sickness or casualty, shall be employed by the superintendent in quarrying Inmates to be put stone, cultivating the ground, manufacturing such articles as may be needed for the prison, almshouse, other public institution of the state or city, or for other persons, and at such other labor as shall, upon trial, be found to be profitable to the institution, and suitable to its proper discipline and to the health and capacities of the inmates; and the superintendent may detail such members of the inmates as he may regard proper to do the work, outside of grounds of the institution, for any of the departments or institutions of the city, or for such other persons as may be approved by the board of managers. 30 April 1879 § 8. P. L. 33. Refusal to work. Ibid. § 9. Malicious destruction of material, machinery, &c. 17. If any person committed to the said house of correction, employment and reformation, according to law, shall refuse or neglect to perform the work assigned to him or her, it shall be the duty of the superintendent to punish such persons by close confinement, on a diet of bread and water only, for such time as may be deemed necessary; which refusal and punishment shall be forthwith reported to the managers, and shall, by the clerk of the board, be recorded in a book to be kept for that purpose; it shall be the duty of the physician of the institution to visit every person, so confined for punishment, at least once in each and every twentyfour hours, and he shall record, in a book to be kept for that purpose, his opinion upon the health of the person confined; upon his opinion being given of said confinement acting injuriously thereon, the said confinement or diet shall be altered in such manner as he shall direct. 18. Any inmate of said institution who shall wilfully break, destroy or injure any material, machinery, tool, property or thing belonging to the said institution, or shall escape therefrom, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof before any court of record of the county of Philadelphia, may be punished by imprisonment at hard labor for not less than one month or more than one year. (y) The power of discharge, not being ministerial but judicial in its character, can be exercised by the board alone; it cannot be delegated to a committee. War. Op. 25 April 1887. |