Session Laws

Whereas, The deferred operation of this act would tend to defeat its purpose, which is to regulate the transfer of certain persons from the Bridgewater state hospital, therefore it is hereby declared to be an emergency law, necessary for the immediate preservation of the public convenience.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

The second paragraph of section 5 of chapter 1 of the acts of 1988 is hereby amended by striking out the third sentence and inserting in place thereof the following two sentences:- Said plan shall be fully implemented by the commissioner of mental health, and the commissioner of correction shall transfer patients in accordance with said plan; provided, however, that said chapter one hundred and twenty-three is amended such that the department of correction is not obligated thereby to accept such patients at the Bridgewater state hospital and such that the department of mental is so obligated; provided, further, that subject to the appropriation of sufficient funds to develop additional secure facilities, the commissioner of mental health shall transfer such patients to mental health facilities located throughout the commonwealth suitable for the care and treatment and security of such patients; provided, further, that the department of mental health request information and recommendations regarding appropriate security arrangements at Medfield state hospital from the boards of selectmen of the towns of Medfield and Dover by January fifteenth, nineteen hundred and ninety; and provided, further, that no patients transfer shall occur until the commissioner of mental health determines that appropriate security precautions have been provided at each location where a patient is to be transferred. The commissioner shall report to the joint committee on human services and elderly affairs the status of all transfers called for in this section by March first, nineteen hundred and ninety and every two years thereafter.