No defendant placed in a setting of the Department of Human Services pursuant to the provisions of Sections 104-17, 104-25, or 104-26 shall be permitted outside the facility’s housing unit unless escorted or accompanied by personnel of the Department of Human Services or authorized by court order. Any defendant, transported to court hearings or other necessary appointments off facility grounds by personnel of the Department of Human Services, may be placed in security devices or otherwise secured during the period of transportation to assure secure transport of the defendant and the safety of Department of Human Services personnel and others. These security measures shall not constitute restraint as defined in the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Code. Nor shall any defendant be permitted any off-grounds privileges, either with or without escort by personnel of the Department of Human Services or any unsupervised on-ground privileges, unless such off-grounds or unsupervised on-grounds privileges have been approved by specific court order, which order may include such conditions on the defendant as the court may deem appropriate and necessary to reasonably assure the defendant’s satisfactory progress in treatment and the safety of the defendant or others. Whenever the court receives a report from the supervisor of the defendant’s treatment recommending the defendant for any off-grounds or unsupervised on-grounds privileges, the court shall set the matter for a first hearing within 21 days unless good cause is demonstrated why the hearing cannot be held. The changes made to this Section by this amendatory Act of the 96th General Assembly are declarative of existing law and shall not be construed as a new enactment.