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Exemptions.

and county courts

act or omission of the jailer, and shall be held to embrace every duty required of him by law.

§ 2. Every jailer shall be exempted from militia duty and from serving on juries.

3. The county jailer shall also be jailer and an officer of Officer of circuit the circuit and county courts for his county, and as such shall discharge and perform all the duties and acts prescribed by law.

oners.

§ 4. The jailer of each county shall receive and keep all Duty as to pris persons in the jail who shall be lawfully committed thereto until they are lawfully discharged. He shall treat them with humanity, and furnish them with proper food and lodging during their confinement, and shall deliver such as die in jail to their friends, if requested, or have them decently buried at the expense of the county. (a)

have use of jail.

§ 5. The United States shall have the right to use the jail United States to of any county by paying the jailer the same fees allowed by the laws of this State. Any jailer shall receive and confine in jail persons committed under the laws of the United Staes, until lawfully discharged.

Custody, &c., of jail confided to jailer.

Distance of residence from jail.

Penalty.

§ 6. Each jailer shall have the custody, rule, and charge of the jail in his county, and of all persons in the jail, and shall keep the same himself. He shall not reside more than four hundred yards from the jail, and where it is such as admits the residence of a family therein, he shall reside in the jail. A violation of this and the preceding sections shall be deemed a misfeasance in office, and the county court may fine the jailer therefor, or he may be indicted and fined at the discretion of a jury.

§ 7. Each jailer, when he goes out of office, shall deliver Keys, furniture, to his successor the custody of the jail, with its keys, furniered to successor. ture, and appurtenances, and the persons confined therein,

&c., to be deliv

(a) It is the official duty of a jailer to keep prisoners safely without a guard. If the jailer be directed, by order of court, to summon a guard to assist him, it is his official duty to superintend the guard so summoned. He cannot summon himself, or be legally appointed by the court, to act as guard, and he is entitled to no compensation for such services. (Vinsant vs. Auditor, 1 Bush, 72.)

2. A contract by a prisoner, who is sick in jail, to pay the jailer for extra services and attention, beyond those required by law of the jailer, is not void as against public policy. (Trundle vs. Riley, 17 B. M., 400.)

3. Contracts by which the jailer undertakes for a reward to appropriate the jail (or rooms in the jail) to the accommodation of private persons, for uses not prescribed or plainly implied by law, are against public policy. (Miller vs. Porter, 8 B. M., 282; Thompson vs. Probert, 2 Bush, 144.)

4. Fees and allowances to jailers being necessary, and provided by law, to enable them to discharge their official duties, public policy will not permit a creditor to attach these fees and allowances in the hands of the sheriff. (Webb vs. McCauley, 4 Bush, 8.)

with all warrants, mittimuses, and other official papers by which prisoners shall have been committed to his custody, or by which they have been liberated therefrom.

§ 8. When the jailer is legally committed to jail, or from any cause the office of jailer of any county shall become vacant, the sheriff of the county shall take the custody of the jail, and of the prisoners therein, and perform all the duties of jailer, until a successor to the jailer shall be elected or appointed and qualified.

Sheriff of county

--when to dis

charge duties of

sheriff cannot.

Duty of county

court in respect

to government &

$ 9. If, for any cause, the sheriff cannot or ought not to Who may act if act, the county judge may so certify, and in writing designate a responsible person, who shall act for the occasion. § 10. It shall be the duty of the county court, from time to time, to prescribe rules for the government and cleanliness of the jail, and the comfort and treatment of prisoners; and shall have power, by fine, to enforce the rules and punish the jailer for disobedience thereto, or for neglect of his official duties. (a)

cleanliness of the

jail, &c.

2 Met., 245. Process may be

executed by.

II. Process from any court may, in a civil, penal, or criminal case, be executed by the jailer of the county, and in all such cases the law applicable to sheriff shall govern the jailer. § 12. The county judge shall inspect the jail of his county Inspection of the at least once a month.

§ 13. The jailer may appeal to the circuit court, and thence to the Court of Appeals, from any judgment of the county court declaring his office vacant, but the appeal shall not, while it is pending, suspend the judgment.(6)

§ 14. A writ of election to fill a vacancy in the office of jailer shall be issued by the county judge, or if the county judge is not at the time in the county, then by the county

jail.

Appeal allowed judgment of the

to jailer from the court vacating

office.

Myers' Sup., 464 be filled by elec

Vacancy-how to

tion.

(a) A jailer cannot be indicted for failing to keep the jail clean and in condition to promote the health and comfort of prisoners, &c. The county court has power, by fine, to enforce the rules, and punish the jailer for neglect or disobedience of the rules. (Commonwealth vs. Mitchell, 3 Bush, 39.

2. Under section 36, article 4, of the Constitution, a jailer is liable to indictment "for permitting the jail to become so filthy as to endanger the comfort, health, and lives of the prisoners," and no legislative enactment is necessary to give the grand jury jurisdiction. (McBride vs. Commonwealth, 4 Bush, 331.)

3. An indictment charging a jailer with the offense of extortion, by willfully and corruptly compelling a prisoner to pay him money to which he was not entitled-held to be good. (Ibid, 25.)

4. If the marshal brought the prisoner, whom he had arrested for being intoxicated, &c., to the jailer, without an order of commitment, he should not have received him. (Ibid, 26.) (6) Jailers may be removed by a judgment of the circuit court, on indictment, for any of the offenses enumerated in section 36, article 4, of the Constitution. (Lowe vs. Commonwealth, 3 Met., 240.)

Myers' Sup., 462.

Vacancy-how to

be filled by the

County court.

Duty of jailer as to cleanliness &

mates.

clerk. The election required to be held by such writ shall always be held at the next August election after the vacancy

occurs.

§ 15. A vacancy in the office of jailer shall be filled by the county court of the county in which it exists, until the next August election, and until the successor then chosen shall qualify; and if from any cause an election is not held, or the vacancy is not then filled, the county court shall fill the vacancy for the unexpired term, if it be less than one year.

§ 16. It shall be the duty of the jailer to keep the jail clean and free from nauseous odors; he shall at all times comfort of the in- keep the same comfortably warm, and shall at all times provide prisoners confined in the jail with a sufficiency of bedclothing to make them comfortable, such bed-clothing to be paid for out of the county levy.

Acts 1863, 62.

Removal of pris

oner from jail

when & by whom

ordered, and how

may make a gen

moval-when.

ARTICLE II.

Prisoners to be removed if Fail insecure.

§ 1. If in any county of this Commonwealth there is no jail, or the same is insecure, or there is danger that any person confined therein, under any order or process of the circuit court, or held to answer any charge in said court, will be rescued therefrom by violence, the judge of the circuit court for said county shall, by an order made of record, if said court is in session, or if the court is not in session, by his written order filed with the clerk of said court, direct that such person shall be transferred to the jail of the nearest county in which the jail is secure and it shall be deemed that he can be safely kept.

§ 2. The court, or judge thereof, may, for any of the The county judge causes stated in the first section of this article, and in the eral order for re- same manner, make a general order, requiring all persons confined, for the reasons in said section stated, in the jail of any county in his district, to be transferred to the nearest jail that is secure and where they can be safely kept. Where any such order is made, and a copy of it furnished the jailer of the county designated, he shall receive all such persons.

$ 3. Where any order is made as directed by the former Sheriff or other sections of this article, the sheriff, or, if there is no sheriff,

officer to execute

order of removal

how and when. the coroner, shall immediately, upon the receipt of a copy

Duty of jailer to prisoner.

receive and keep

Penalty for fail

ure herein.

Compensation to officer and guards conveying.

of the order of the circuit judge or court, transfer the prisoners to the jail of the county designated in the order. He shall deliver to the jailer of said county, at the jail, the prisoner and the copy of said order, and take from him a receipt for the prisoner, which he shall return to the clerk's office of the circuit court of the county from which the removal was made, who shall file the same amongst the records of his office. The jailer shall receive the prisoners, and them safely keep, until properly discharged; and if he fail, neglect, or refuse to do so, he and his sureties shall be liable, in the same manner and to the same extent, as if the persons had been regularly committed by an order of the circuit court of his county; and shall receive the same fees, to be paid as like fees are now, by law, paid for the like service. The officer conveying the prisoners to the jail designated, and such guards as the judge or court may direct him to take, not exceeding the number of guards allowed in taking convicts to the penitentiary, shall receive the same compensation and mileage that they are now allowed by law for taking convicts to the penitentiary, to be allowed by the circuit court directing the transfer, and paid out of the Treasury of When paid out of the Treasury. the Commonwealth, unless there was no jail in the county, or it was rendered insecure by reason of the failure of the county court to keep it in the requisite condition, then it shall be paid out of the county levy of the county; and the When out of the court in making the allowance shall state in the order out of which fund it shall be paid. The order of the court or Effect of the orjudge directing the transfer shall be conclusive evidence that the transfer was proper, and to the right jail, and shall be a justification to the jailer for holding any such prisoner, in any action against him for false imprisonment. A circuit judge shall have jurisdiction to hear applications for bail, and to grant the same, if the case is bailable, in the manner now prescribed by law. If there is no circuit judge in the county when the order of transfer is made, as directed in the first section of this article, the county judge shall make the same. He shall deliver his order to the clerk of the circuit court, which shall be presented to the circuit court at its next term, subject to its supervising control.

county levy.

der of removal.

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§ 1. No person shall be qualified to serve as a grand juryQualification of man unless he be a white citizen and a housekeeper of the

grand jurymen.

county in which he may be called to serve, and over the age of twenty-one years. No civil officer, surveyor of a highway, owner of a grist-mill, tavern-keeper, vender of ardent spirits by license, or who for reward has, within the preceding six months, stood a horse, jack, or bull, shall be competent to serve as a grand juror.

§ 2. There shall be summoned by the sheriff of the counNumber of grand ty sixteen grand jurymen, to attend on the first day of the When to attend. term of each circuit court, at which criminal or penal prosecutions may be tried.

jurymen.

§ 3. Every person summoned to attend as a grand juryFine for non-at- man, if he fail to attend, without a reasonable cause, shall be fined not exceeding ten dollars,

tendance.

4. If the court shall deem it necessary, a grand jury When bystanders composed of by-standers may be empanneled at any term, neled as a grand after the discharge of the grand jury first empanneled.

may be empan

jury.

Foreman.

jurors.

§ 5. The court shall appoint one of the number of every grand jury foreman thereof.

§ 6. The following oath, in substance, shall be adminisOath of grand tered to the grand jury: "Saving yourselves, you do swear that you will diligently inquire of and present all treasons, felonies, misdemeanors, and breaches of the penal laws, which shall have been committed or done within the limits or the jurisdiction of this county, of which you have knowledge or may receive information."

Penalty on sher

iff for failure to

summon.

§ 7. If a sheriff shall fail to summon the grand jury as required by law, without a reasonable excuse for such fail

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