1186 LAWS OF MARYLAND [CH. 625

91L. The Board of Parole and Probation shall appoint
such staff and other employees as may be necessary to
assist them in the performance of their duties. Such staff
and employees shall be subject to the provisions of Article
64A of this Code, title "Merit System. "

99. The members of the Board of Parole and Probation
and all of the duly qualified officers and agents of the
[Division] Department of Parole and Probation shall have
and are hereby given visitorial powers over all institutions
to which any person may be committed upon a criminal
charge, whether such institution be a State, County, or
City institution; and the said [Director] members of said
Board of Parole and Probation shall have power to sum-
mon any witness including any prisoner confined in any
State, County, or City institution, before [him] them, and
to administer oaths or affirmations to such witness wher-
ever, in the judgment of the said [Director] members of
said Board, it may be necessary for the effectual discharge
of [his] their duties under this sub-title. Any person fail-
ing to appear before said [Director] members of said
Board of Parole and Probation at the time and place speci-
fied, in answer to said summons, personally served upon
said witness, or refusing to testify, shall be punishable by
a fine of not less than Twenty-five Dollars nor more than
One Hundred Dollars; false swearing on the part of any
witness testifying before said [Director] members of said
Board of Parole and Probation on a matter material to
inquiry shall be deemed perjury.

100. (a) It shall be the duty of the [Director] Board
of Parole and Probation of [his] its own initiative to cause
to he made such investigation as may enable him to deter-
mine the advisability of granting parole to persons sen-
tenced under the laws of this State, to any penal institution
therein [for a term or terms totaling one year or more-^
, WHENEVER SUCH PRISONER SHALL HAVE
SERVED IN CONFINEMENT ONE-THIRD OF SUCH
TERM OR CONSECUTIVE TERMS.

(b) Whenever, upon having completed such investiga-
tion the said [Director] Board of Parole and Probation
shall be of the opinion that both the interests of the State
and of any prisoner [serving a term or terms totaling one
year or more, ] would be best subserved by the release of
said prisoner on parole, and that there is reasonable prob-
ability that, if such prisoner is released, he will remain
at liberty without violating the law, it shall be the duty
of the [Director] Board of Parole and Probation [to