Chapter LXXXI. to provide for erecting a penitentiary in the District of Columbia, and for other purposes
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Chap. LXXXI.— An Act to provide for erecting a penitentiary in the District of Columbia, and for other purposes. May 20, 1826. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, * President of the United States to appoint the commissioners. That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby, authorized and required to appoint three commissioners, whose duty it shall be to select a proper site in the District of Columbia, on which to erect a penitentiary, for the said district.
Sec. 2. When the commissioners shall have selected the site, it must be approved by the President. *And be it further enacted, *That, as soon as the said commissioners shall have selected the said site, and the President of the United States shall have approved thereof, it shall be the duty of the commissioner of the public buildings to cause to be built thereon, of substantial materials, a penitentiary for the said district, sufficiently large to contain one hundred and sixty separate cells, and other necessary apartments, for Penitentiary to be erected.the residence of the keeper of the said penitentiary, and other purposes, on a plan to be approved by the President of the United States, and enclose the same in a securely walled yard of sufficient dimensions to allow room to employ the convicts who may be there confined at any kind of labour which may be found most profitable.
Sec. 3. 40,000 dollars appropriated for defraying the expenses thereof. *And be it further enacted, *That, for the purpose of defraying the expense of erecting the said building, there is hereby appropriated the sum of forty thousand dollars, to be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. Sec. 4. Duty of the commissioner of the public buildings. *And be it further enacted, *That it shall be the duty of the said commissioner of the public buildings, to cause the present jail in the city of Washington to be so altered and repaired, as to make it a suitable, convenient, healthy, and comfortable prison for the use of the city and county of Washington; for the making and finishing of which repairs, the sum of five thousand dollars is hereby appropriated, to be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.
Sec. 5. Commissioners to select a site in the county of Alexandria, for a county jail. *And be it further enacted, *That the said commissioners shall also select a site in the county of Alexandria, for a county jail, on which it shall be the duty of the commissioner of the public buildings to cause a county jail, for the city and county of Alexandria, to be erected and finished on a plan to be approved by the President of the United States. And there is hereby appropriated, for the building of the said jail, the sum of ten thousand dollars, to be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.
Approved, May 20, 1826.