The Pub. Sts. c. 22, § 14, provide that “ the commissioners and special commissioners of the several counties
We think these statutes and the Public Statutes mean that the annual salaries shall be in full payment for all their services and travel as county commissioners; and that no other compensation for such services and travel shall be paid to them.
The county commissioners provide a house or houses of correction for the counties, Pub. Sts. c. 220, § 7, and suitable materials and implements, and establish needful rules, § 11; and examine all accounts of the master “ relating to the earnings of the prisoners and all expenses of the institution,” &c. § 12. They may make contracts for work to be done, or for letting out to hire the prisoners. §§ 13,14. The sheriff, except in the county of Suffolk, has “ the custody, rule, and charge ” of the house of
The general scheme is, that the sheriff, by his deputy as master, shall be responsible for the safe keeping of the prisoners, and that the county commissioners shall furnish the necessary supplies, material, and implements, establish rules for employing, reforming, governing, and punishing the prisoners, make contracts for the work of the prisoners, and settle the accounts of the master. But it is the duty of the master to dispose of the articles manufactured to the best advantage, .and in this the statutes do not make the master the agent or servant of the commissioners. The commissioners do not appoint him, and they cannot remove him, although they may ask the Superior Court to remove him; Pub. Sts. c. 220, § 24; and we cannot see that it is any part of the duty of the commissioners to make sales of the articles produced by the labor of the prisoners. The necessary and reasonable expenses of making such sales should, of course, be allowed the master. The defendant, therefore, in making the sales, was not acting as county commissioner; and whatever may be the propriety of forbidding by law any such employment of a commissioner by the master, a majority of the court think it is not forbidden by existing statutes.
Judgment affirmed. ,
