Page:The Federal and state constitutions v5.djvu/294

2820 The general assembly shall, at its first meeting, make provision for the erection and conduct of a State's prison, or penitentiary, at some central and accessible point within the State.

The general assembly may provide for the erection of houses of correction, where vagrants and persons guilty of misdemeanors shall be restrained and usefully employed.

A house or houses of refuge may be established, whenever the public interest may require it, for the correction and instruction of other classes of offenders.

It shall be required by competent legislation that the structure and superintendence of penal institutions of the State, the county jails, and city police prisons, secure the health and comfort of the prisoners, and that male and female prisoners be never confined in the same room or cell.

Beneficent provision for the poor, the unfortunate, and orphan being one of the first duties of a civilized and Christian State, the general assembly shall, at its first session, appoint and define the duties of a board of public charities, to whom shall be intrusted the supervision of all charitable and penal State institutions, and who shall annually report to the governor upon their condition, with suggestions for their improvement.

There shall also, as soon as practicable, be measures devised by the State for the establishment of one or more orphan houses, where destitute orphans may be cared for, educated, and taught some business or trade.

It shall be the duty of the legislature, as soon as practicable, to devise means for the education of idiots and inebriates.

The general assembly shall provide that all the deaf-mutes, the blind, and the insane of the State shall be cared for at the charge of the State.

It shall be steadily kept in view by the legislature and the board of public charities that all penal and charitable institutions should be made as nearly self-supporting as is consistent with the purposes of their creation.

All able-bodied male citizens of the State of North Carolina between the ages of twenty-one and forty years, who are citizens of the United States, shall be liable to duty in the militia: Provided, That all persons who may be adverse to bearing arms, from religious scruples, shall be exempt therefrom.

The general assembly shall provide for the organizing arming, equipping, and disciplining of the militia, and for paying the same when called into active service.

The governor shall be commander-in-chief, and have power to call out the militia to execute the law, to suppress riots or insurrection, and to repel invasion.

The general assembly shall have power to make such exemptions as may be deemed necessary, and to enact laws that may be expedient for the government of the militia.