Part 7

The Acting Committee shall consist of the officers of the Society, _ex-officio_ and fifty other members. They shall visit the prison at least twice a month, inquire into the circumstances of the prisoners, and report such abuses as they shall discover to the proper officers appointed to remedy them. They shall examine the influence of confinement on the morals of the prisoners. They shall keep regular minutes of their proceedings, which shall be submitted at every stated meeting of the Society, and shall be authorized to fill vacancies occurring in their own body, whether arising from death or removal from the city, or from inability or neglect to visit the prisons in accordance with their regulations. They shall also have the sole power of electing new members.

ARTICLE VI.

Candidates for membership may be proposed at any meeting of the Society or of the Acting Committee; but no election shall take place within ten days after such nomination. Each member shall pay an annual contribution of two dollars. If any member neglects or refuses to pay such contribution within three months after due notice has been given such person, the Acting Committee may, at its option, strike said name from the list of members. The payment of twenty dollars at any one time shall constitute a Life Membership. Any person paying not less than five hundred dollars shall be called a Patron of the Society.

ARTICLE VII.

Honorary members may be elected at such times as the Society may deem expedient.

ARTICLE VIII.

The Society shall hold an Annual Meeting on the fourth Fifth-day (Thursday) in the First month (January) of each year, and Stated Meetings on the fourth Fifth-day (Thursday) in the months of April, July, and October, at which seven shall constitute a quorum.

ARTICLE IX.

No alteration in the Constitution shall be made unless the same shall have been proposed in writing at a stated meeting of the Society, held not less than three months previous to the adoption of such alteration; and no such amendment shall be adopted unless approved by the votes of three-fourths of the members present.

The Secretary shall state on the notices of that meeting that an amendment or amendments will be acted upon. And not later than the usual time of sending said notices, he shall furnish the members with written copies of the word or words, and form of the proposed amendment _displayed_, and so much of the original form of the article to be amended as will show the relation of the proposed amendment to the context, and of the article in its amended form with all the words of the amendment displayed. All other questions shall be decided, when there is a division, by a majority of votes; in those where the Society is equally divided, the presiding officer shall have the casting vote.

OF VISITORS.

No person who is not an official visitor of the prison, or who has not a written permission, according to such rules as the Inspectors may adopt as aforesaid, shall be allowed to visit the same; the official visitors are: the Governor, the Speaker and members of the Senate, the Speaker and members of the House of Representatives; the Secretary of the Commonwealth; the Judges of the Supreme Court; the Attorney-General and his Deputies; the President and Associate Judges of all the courts in the State; the Mayor and Recorders of the cities of Philadelphia, Lancaster, and Pittsburg; Commissioners and Sheriffs of the several Counties; and the “Acting Committee of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons.” Note: Now named “The Pennsylvania Prison Society.”

AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE

Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons.

SECTION I.--_Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same_, That all and every the persons who shall at the time of the passing of this Act be members of the Society called “The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons,” shall be and they are hereby created and declared to be one body, politic and corporate, by the name, style and title of “The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons,” and by the same name shall have perpetual succession, and shall be able to sue and be sued, implead and be impleaded in all courts of record or elsewhere, and to take and receive, hold and enjoy, by purchase, grant, devise, or bequest to them and their successors, lands, tenements, rents, annuities, franchises, hereditaments, goods and chattels of whatsoever nature, kind, or quality soever, real, personal, or mixed, or choses in action, and the same from time to time to sell, grant, devise, alien, or dispose of; _provided_ That the clear yearly value or income of the necessary houses, lands, tenements, rents, annuities, and other hereditaments, and real estate of the said corporation, and the interest of money by it lent, shall not exceed the sum of five thousand dollars; and also to make and have a common seal, and the same to break, alter, and renew at pleasure; and also to ordain, establish, and put in execution such by-laws, ordinances, and regulations as shall appear necessary and convenient for the government of the said corporation, not being contrary to this Charter or the Constitution and laws of the United States, or of this Commonwealth, and generally to do all and singular the matters and things which to them it shall lawfully appertain to do for the well-being of the said corporation, and the due management and ordering of the affairs thereof; and provided further, that the objects of the Society shall be confined to the alleviation of the miseries of public prisons, the improvement of prison discipline and relief of discharged prisoners.

SAM’L. ANDERSON, _Speaker of House_. THOS. RINGLAND, _Speaker of Senate_.

Approved the 6th day of April, Anno Domini Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-three.

GEORGE WOLF.

LEGAL CHANGE OF NAME.

The Following Confirms the Action Relative to the Change of the Name of the Prison Society,

Decree:

And now, to wit, this 27th day of January, A. D. 1886, on motion of A. Sidney Biddle, Esq., the Petition and Application for change of name filed by “The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons,” having been presented and considered, and it appearing that the order of court heretofore made as to advertisement has been duly complied with and due notice of said application to the Auditor-General of the State of Pennsylvania being shown, it is Ordered, Adjudged, and Decreed, that the name of the said Society shall hereafter be “THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY,” to all intents and purposes as if the same had been the original name of the said Society, and the same name shall be deemed and taken to be a part of the Charter of the said society upon the recording of the said Application with its indorsements and this Decree in the Office of the Recorder of Deeds of this County, and upon filing with the Auditor-General a Copy of this Decree.

[Signed] JOSEPH ALLISON.

Record:

Recorded in the office for the Recording of Deeds in and for the City and County of Philadelphia, on Charter Book No. 11, page 1064. Witness my hand and seal of Office this 28th day of June, A. D. 1886.

GEO. G. PIRRIE, _Recorder of Deeds_.

[Transcriber’s Note:

Obvious printer errors corrected silently.

Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.]