The superintendent [warden] may, under the inmate-release program and at the request of a prisoner, extend the limits of confinement beyond the penitentiary by authorizing the prisoner to work at paid employment in private business or in public employment, or to attend a school while continuing as a prisoner, if the prisoner:
A. is a trusty or a minimum-custody inmate; B. has physical and mental ability to fully perform the proposed assignment consistent with his capacities and free from any outpatient care that would interfere with full performance; C. is not afflicted with any serious emotional or personality defect; D. has not been convicted of a crime involving assaultive sexual conduct nor violence to a child, nor has been linked with organized criminal activity; and E. would not, in the opinion of the superintendent, be likely to evoke an adverse public reaction by his presence in the community. 1953 Comp., § 42-1-79, enacted by Laws 1969, ch. 166, § 2; 1971, ch. 281, § 1.