Ala. Code § 14-1-12
The board may also make such changes in the existing arrangements with reference to the segregation and treatment of tubercular patients and other patients needing long-time hospital detention and care who are serving sentences for conviction of crime, so as to permit such patients to be transferred to the custody and care of those officers and agents who have the charge and control of the detention hospital, or hospitals, of the state convict system. The agents in charge of such hospital, or hospitals, during the period of the treatment of such convict patients, are constituted the legal custodians of such convicts. Any such hospital, or hospitals, or other places suitable and used under the convict system for the segregation and treatment of tubercular or other long-time patients may be opened under the authority of the board and may be used for the segregation, treatment and care of other inmates afflicted with tuberculosis or other diseases or ailments requiring long-time detention, treatment and care, and who may be received from any other institution covered by this chapter, or from any hospital or other duly accredited and responsible institution in the state with which the board may cooperate in the matter of the treatment or care of such patients. There shall be proper separation of convicts from free persons and males from females in such hospital or place of detention. The board is given general authority over the reception, care, custody and segregation of such persons and is also vested with the power and authority, by and with the approval of the Governor, to establish and promulgate rules and regulations for the proper conduct of the business and operation of such hospitals and places of detention, except as may be otherwise provided by this chapter.
Ala. Code § 14-1-12 (1975)