WM. PRESTON LANE, JR., GOVERNOR. 1381

August 1, and December 31st each year, except, however, any
such prisoners being utilized or needed by the State
Roads Commission for emergency road maintenance work
in any county of this State. Persons who employ such pris-
oners from the Board of Correction shall be required to pay
the reasonable value of such labor at the estimated prevail-
ing wage scale for such work in the community where the
prisoners are so employed and to give such security there-
for as the Board may, in its discretion, determine and re-
quire. Persons employing such prison labor shall be auth-
orized to sell the produce harvested by such labor notwith-
standing the restrictions imposed by Section 762 of Article
27 of the Annotated Code. Prisoners so employed in the
harvesting of crops shall be under the control and super-
vision of the Board of Correction to the same extent as when
employed on the construction and maintenance of roads.

It is declared to be the policy of the State that, because of
the enforced idleness of prisoners in the several penal insti-
tutions of the State, it is necessary and desirable that useful
work on State projects may be found for said prisoners and
that those who may be safely used for this work shall be put
upon maintenance, construction or reconstruction.

All prisoners placed at work on farms under the provisions
of this section shall remain under the control and custody
of the officers of the institution from which they are assigned
and shall remain subject to all of the laws, including the
law as to escaping from prison, rules and regulations appli-
cable to prisoners confined in said institution; and all pris-
oners employed on roads under the provisions of this section,
for the purposes of the Workmen's Compensation Laws of
this State shall be deemed employees of the institution from
which they are assigned.

SEC. 20. And be it further enacted, That three new sec-
tions be and they are hereby added to Article 89B of the
Annotated Code of Maryland (1939 Edition), title "State
Roads", to follow immediately after Section 155 of said Ar-
ticle, under a new sub-title "Special Provisions as to Desig-
nated Counties", to be known as Sections 156, 157 and 158,
respectively and to read as follows:

SPECIAL PROVISIONS AS TO DESIGNATED COUNTIES

156. Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 14 of this
Article, the State Roads Commission is hereby authorized
and directed, as contracting party or otherwise, to undertake,
carry out and perform the construction, reconstruction and
maintenance of county roads (as defined in Section 1A of