[ Act No. 2454, February 02, 1915 ]

AN ACT AMENDING SECTIONS THIRTEEN AND FOURTEEN OF ACT NUMBERED SEVENTEEN HUNDRED AND THREE, AS AMENDED, BY AUTHORIZING THE CONFINEMENT, UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS, IN MUNICIPAL JAILS OF PERSONS HELD PENDING INVESTIGATION OR TRIAL BY COURTS OF FIRST INSTANCE AND OF SHORT-TERM PRISONERS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.

By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Legislature, that:

SECTION 1. Section thirteen of Act Numbered Seventeen hundred and three, as amended by Act Numbered Nineteen hundred and twenty-three, is hereby further amended to read as follows:
"SEC. 13. Provincial boards may, with the approval of the Governor-General, direct the confinement of municipal  board' prisoners in provincial jails, when by reason of the lack, inadequacy, or insecurity of municipal jails  such action becomes necessary, or when in their judgment such confinement would best subserve the public interest. The cost of maintenance of such prisoners while confined in the provincial jails shall be a charge against the municipality to which the prisoners pertain at a per capita rate per day, not exceeding twenty centavos, to be fixed by the provincial board.

"Provincial boards may, also, with the approval of the Governor-General, direct the confinement of persons detained pending preliminary investigation before a judge of the Court of First Instance or pending trial before the Court of First Instance, in the jail of the municipality where such investigation or trial is to be held, if no provincial jail be located therein: Provided, That such prisoners shall be maintained during their confinement in the municipal jail at the expense of the province."
SEC. 2. Section fourteen of said Act is hereby amended to read as follows:
"SEC. 14. Whenever, in the discretion of the Governor-General, the insanitary or insecure condition of any provincial or municipal jail makes it advisable, or whenever the public interests require, he may transfer to any Insular prison or penal institution all or any of the prisoners committed to such jail,  and may direct the return  of said prisoners to provincial or municipal jails whenever it may be deemed expedient. He may also, whenever in his opinion it will be to the best interest of the province or municipality concerned, authorize the confinement of any prisoner sentenced to less than three months' imprisonment, including subsidiary imprisonment, in the jail, of the municipality wherein the prisoner may have been convicted. Such order of transfer may include any prisoners now serving sentence in any provincial or municipal jail, or now awaiting preliminary examination or trial. The order of commitment of such prisoners, together with a copy of the order directing their transfer as hereinbefore provided, shall accompany the prisoners and be delivered with them to the officer in charge of the penal institution to which they are sent."
SEC. 3. This Act shall take effect on its passage.

Enacted, February 2, 1915.