71 Pa. Stat. § 1516
The said board shall have power, by a resolution, to be entered on its minutes, subject to such terms and regulations as it may prescribe, to designate three or more persons in any county, to act, without compensation, as visitors in said county of the several poorhouses and other institutions therein, subject to the visitation of the board, in aid of and as representatives of such board; and all public officers and others in charge of such institutions shall admit to said institutions all such persons so designated, upon the production of a copy of such resolution, certified by the president or secretary of said board, to visit, examine and inspect the grounds and buildings of every such institution and every part thereof, and all its hospital and other arrangements, and to have free access to all its inmates. Any public officer, superintendent or person in charge of any such institution, who shall refuse to admit any person so designated, or shall refuse to give said visitors all requisite facilities for the examination and inspection herein provided for, shall be subject to a penalty of two hundred and fifty dollars for each such refusal, which penalty may be sued and recovered in the name of the people of the state, by the district attorney of the county in which such institution is situated, and the sum so recovered shall be paid into the treasury of the state.
71 P.S. § 1516