2.3 The Cubic Air Law of 1870

In 1871, the Cubic Air Ordinance was passed in San Francisco. This required five hundred cubic feet of living space for ever adult. This was targeted especially to Chinatown, where the Chinese immigrants were often living in very crowded quarters. This ordinance had to repealed three years later because it had resulted in the arrest of several hundred Chinese and thus overcrowded jails.

San Francisco then passed the Queue Ordinance which required that all prisoners cut their queues off so that they were no longer than an inch, resulting in deep humiliation.