3. Inspection and approval of all residential facilities within the State providing diagnosis, care or treatment of persons with mental illness or developmental disabilities shall be a responsibility of the department. The commissioner shall have the duty and is hereby authorized to set standards, and through his agents, including professionally qualified persons, to visit and inspect as often as is necessary, but at least once a year, all residential facilities which provide diagnosis, care or treatment of persons with mental illness or developmental disabilities, whether State, county, municipal, public or private, in order to determine the conditions under which such persons are lodged, cared for, maintained or treated, and in order to assure that adequate standards of care and treatment are maintained, that civil liberties of individuals receiving care are preserved and that the public may be informed of the adequacy of these facilities.

The State board and the commissioner, or their agents, shall have the right of admission to all parts of any building or buildings in which persons with mental illness or developmental disabilities are lodged, cared for or treated, as often as may be necessary. The extent and results of such visitation and inspection shall be included in the annual or any special report of the commissioner or the State board with such recommendations as they may deem necessary. Such report shall be available to the public.

L.1965, c.59, s.3; amended 1971, c.384, s.22; 2010, c.50, s.21.