ALBERT C. RITCHIE, GOVERNOR. 1077

660, 661 and 662, so as to provide for the establishment of
an employees' retirement system for the employees of the
Maryland House of Correction and the Maryland Peniten-
tiary.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Mary-
land, That five new sections be added to Article 27 of Bagby's
Annotated Code of Maryland, title ''Crimes and Punishments, "
sub-title "III. Places of Reformation and Punishment, " the
said five new sections to follow immediately after Section 657.
to be known as Sections 658, 659, 660, 661 and 662, and to
read as follows:

658. Whenever any employee of the Maryland House of
Correction or the Maryland Penitentiary except the Warden,
Chaplains, physicians, dentists, nurses and social workers,
shall have given meritorious service as such employee in
either or both of said institutions for a period of twenty
years, of which the last ten years shall have been continuous,
or who shall have become permanently disabled and unfitted
for active duty due to injury received in such employment
arising out of and in the course of his or her employment,
he or she, as the case may be, shall, in the discretion of the
Board of Welfare, be eligible for retirement and may there-
upon make application to the Board of Welfare, created by
Chapter 29 of the Acts of 1922, or its successor or successors,
to be retired; whereupon it shall be the duty of the Director
of Welfare to make a prompt and impartial investigation
(and upon request of the applicant to give him or her a hear-
ing) as to the merits of such application, and thereafter, if
the Board of Welfare shall find the said applicant to be eligi-
ble for retirement under the terms of this Act, it shall have
power, in its discretion, to retire such applicant, and there-
after to pay him or her, during his or her natural life, a
monthly salary equal to one-half the average monthly salary
received by such employee during the year immediately pre-
ceding the granting of his or her application for retirement;
provided, however, that such payments shall not exceed the
rate of one thousand ($1, 000) dollars per year to any one
person.

659. Whenever any employee of the Maryland House of
Correction or the Maryland Penitentiary except the Warden,
Chaplains, physicians, dentists, nurses and social workers, who
shall have given meritorious service as such employee in either