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 1. _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, and
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 object of the
Society shall be confined to the alleviation of the miseries of public
prisons, the improvement of prison discipline, and the 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.