(a) The department shall provide for the classification and separation of inmates with respect to age, first offenders, habitual criminals and incorrigibles, diseased inmates, mentally diseased inmates, and those having contagious, infectious, and incurable diseases. Incorrigible inmates in county correctional institutions shall be returned to the department at the request of the proper county authority.

(b) The department may establish separate correctional or similar institutions for the separation and care of juvenile offenders. The commissioner may transfer any juvenile under 17 years of age from the penal institution in which he is serving to the Department of Juvenile Justice, provided that the transfer is approved thereby. The juvenile may be returned to the custody of the commissioner when the commissioner of juvenile justice determines that the juvenile is unsuited to be dealt with therein.

(c) Female inmates shall be removed from proximity to the place of detention for males and shall not be confined in a county correctional institution or other county facility except with the express written approval of the department.

(d) The department is authorized to transfer a mentally diseased inmate from a state or county correctional institution or other facility operating under its authority to a criminal ward or facility of the Department of Human Resources. The inmate shall remain in the custody of the Department of Human Resources until proper officials of the facility at which he is detained declare that his sanity has been restored, at which time the inmate shall be returned to the custody of the department. At any time after completion of his sentence, an inmate detained by the Department of Human Resources on the grounds that he is mentally diseased may petition for release in accordance with the procedure provided in Chapter 3 of Title 37. Prior to completion of his sentence, this procedure shall not be available to him.

(e) Upon being presented with a proper certification from the county physician of a county where a person has been sentenced to confinement that the person sentenced is addicted to drugs or alcohol to the extent that his health will be impaired or his life endangered if immediate treatment is not rendered, the department shall transfer the inmate to the custody of the Department of Human Resources. The inmate shall remain in such custody until officials of the Department of Human Resources determine he is able to serve his sentence elsewhere.

(f) The department may transfer any inmate afflicted with active tuberculosis from any state or county correctional institution, or any other facility operating under the authority of the department, to a tubercular ward or facility specially provided and maintained for criminals by the department at a tuberculosis facility or facilities operating under the Department of Human Resources.