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 SEPARATION OF STATE DEPENDENTS

The Southern States, as a rule, require a separation by race of inmates of State charitable and penal institutions, and where it is not provided for by statute, it is done as a matter of custom. Alabama,[102] for instance, makes it unlawful for any jailer or sheriff, having charge of white and colored prisoners before conviction, to imprison them permanently together in the same apartments of the jail or other places of safe-keeping, if there are enough separate apartments. It is also unlawful[103] for white and colored convicts to be chained together, allowed to sleep together, or confined in the same room or apartment when not at work.

The legislature of Arkansas[104] passed a statute in 1903, directing that in the State penitentiary and in all county jails, stockades, convict camps, and all other places where prisoners are confined, separate apartments should be provided and maintained for white and Negro prisoners. Separate bunks, beds, bedding, dining tables, and other furnishings were required, and after they had once been assigned to a prisoner of one race they must not be changed to the use of one of the other race. White prisoners must not be handcuffed or otherwise chained or tied to a Negro prisoner.

Georgia[105] does not allow prison-keepers, or firms leasing or controlling convicts, to confine white and colored convicts together, or to work them chained together, or to chain them together in going to and from their work or at any other time. Mississippi[106] provides that no discrimination shall be made on account of race, color, or previous