Evening star., 1909-06-27
PENAL SITES TANClE
Jurisdiction involved Unless
Title Vests in United States.
PURCHASE is HELD UP
Attorney General to Decide if New
Legislation Is Needed.
DAWSON TRACT DECIDED ON
Virginia Laws Would Give District
of Columbia Merely Rights Of
Individual Owner.

Additional legislation by Congress, with
attending delays, it has been discovered
by District officials, may be necessary
ginia or Maryland as the sites for the
new penal institutions for the District.
The essential question at issue IS
whether or not title to the sites can be
taken in the name of the United States.
If title cannot be so taken, it is doubtful
IL the District can maintain jurisdiction
over prisoners in the institutions outside
OF the District.
To the Attorney General of the United
States the tangle has finally to be left
for decision by the officials Of the Dis
trict government. Upon his opinion will
depend whether additional legislation by
Congress is necessary. Until the matter
is decided by the head OF the federal
Department OF Justice, the purchase of
the site already chosen for the work
house on Occoquan river, in Virginia, is
held up.
Provisions of Law.
In the District appropriation act
adopted at the last Congress it is pro-
vlded:
1.-The Commissioners Of the District of
Columbia are hereby authorized and di-
rected to purchase two tracts of land,
widely separated of not less than 1000
acres each. either or both of which to be
situated in the state of Maryland or the
state of Virginia
After the Commissioners had decided to
| accept what is known as the Dawson
in Nirseyf mi 0ff f<,r- ttex
house, an order was issued by the Com
| missioners providing for the transfer of
title of the land to "the United States" !"
When the District auditor, Alonzo Twee-
dale, received a copy of this order the
| legal tangle began to develop.
He looked in the provision in the ap-
preparation act for something about the
| taking of title to the penal institution
sites in the name of the United States
but found nothing. Neither did it say
| that in establishing the new workhouse
and reformatory in Maryland or Virginia
the Commissioners of the District are
acting as agents of the United States.
Laws Give No Help.
| Auditor Tweedale then began to search
| the law books to learn the exact status
of the District and of the Commissioners
as regards the United States He found
that all the legal decisions and laws
the effect that the District of Columbia
although a creature OF the Congress oi
the United States, Is municipal cor
poration, and that the Commissioners.
although appointed by the President OF
the United States, are officers of the
municipal corporation only, and are not
in any sense agents of the United States.
But Mr.. Tweedale's plunge into law
books did not end there. He sought out
the laws and constitution of the state
of Virginia and could find nothing to
indicate that the District Of Columbia
holding title to land In the state, had
any more rights as regards police juris-
diction and other matters Of vital inn
portance in the maintenance of a penal
institution, than private owner of prop
erty In the state.
This made it necessary that title to the
| workhouse and reformatory should be in
the name of the United States, if juris-
diction was still to be maintained over
prisoners committed to the institutions.
Complications Apprehended.
| 1t became evident that writs Of habeas
the release of the prisoners sent to the
workhouse and reformatory, unless the
question of jurisdiction was settled prop
| erly at the start. 1t was also believed
that no money should be paid out for the
purchase of land until it was certain that
penal institutions could be maintained
| by the District on the sites selected.
| The question was explained to the Com
missioners. 1t was decided to ask the
| Attorney General of the United States to
determine whether, under the act, title
to the land in Virginia Maryland can
be taken by the Commissioners in the
name of the United States and jurisdic-
| tion over prisoners sent there maintained
| by the District courts.
Should the Attorney General decide that
! the act will not permit the taking OF
| title to the land in the name of the
| United States, it is pointed out, additional
legislation will be necessary. This would
provide that the Commissioners shall buy
| the sites and maintain the penal insti-
tutions as agents of the United States,
and that the District courts, in sending
prisoners to the new institutions, are act
| ing for municipal corporation which is
an agent of the United States.