148-40. Recapture of escaped prisoners.
The rules and regulations for the government of the State prison system may provide for the recapture of convicts that may escape, or any convicts that may have escaped from the State's prison or prison camps, or county road camps of this State, and the Division of Adult Correction and Juvenile Justice of the Department of Public Safety may pay to any person recapturing an escaped convict such reward or expense of recapture as the regulations may provide. Any citizen of North Carolina shall have authority to apprehend any convict who may escape before the expiration of his term of imprisonment whether he be guilty of a felony or misdemeanor, and retain him in custody and deliver him to the Division of Adult Correction and Juvenile Justice of the Department of Public Safety.