Section 1473 - Powers of Department; boards of visitorsThe department shall have and may exercise power--
(1) to make and enforce rules and regulations, as follows:(a) Providing for the licensing of all houses or places in which any person can be lawfully detained as a lunatic or of unsound mind upon compensation paid to or received by the owner or occupant of such house or place, directly or indirectly, for the care of such lunatic, and also of all houses, places, or institutions, in which more than one person of unsound mind is detained or resides, other than a jail or prison, with the right to exempt any State institution, institution under municipal authority, or any other institution.(b) To insure the proper care and treatment of persons of unsound mind detained in any house, place, or institution, whether licensed or not, to guard against the improper or unnecessary detention of such persons, to regulate the manner of their detention and the restraints imposed and all matters relative to their welfare, to regulate their means of communication with relatives, friends, and other persons outside the house, place, or institution of detention, and to insure to them the admission of all proper visitors, being members of their family or personal friends, agents, or attorneys.(c) Regulating the forms to be observed warranting the commitment, transfer of custody, and discharge of all lunatics, other than those committed by order of a court of record, and, as to these, with the consent of the presiding judge of the court under whose order the person is detained.(d) To prescribe standards of equipment, management, and administration for the institutions, associations, and societies, into whose care the custody of delinquent, neglected, or dependent children may be committed, and to insure proper care of the children committed to the custody of such institution, association, or society.(e) For regulating the visitation, examination, and inspection of the institutions, prisons, almshouses, poorhouses, houses, places, associations, societies, or homes, under the supervision of the department pursuant to the provisions of section nine hereof. (f) For the enforcement of the provisions of this act and of all laws whose enforcement is imposed upon the department.(g) For the approval of psychopathic wards maintained by hospitals for the reception and care of persons suffering with mental disorders.(2) For the transfer of insane and certain other persons from one place or institution to another, and to enforce laws relative thereto, as follows:(a) To apply to the proper court for the transfer or removal of insane persons from county or district poorhouses, almshouses, hospitals, or in the custody of the directors or overseers of the poor, to the State hospitals for the insane. Such application shall be made, and the proceedings thereunder had, in accordance with the provisions of the act of Assembly, approved the thirteenth day of June, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and eighty-three (Pamphlet Laws, ninety-two), entitled "An act to provide for the care and treatment of the indigent insane of the several counties of the Commonwealth in State hospitals for the insane," or the act, approved the seventh day of May, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four (Pamphlet Laws, one hundred and nineteen), entitled "A supplement to the act to create a board of public charities, approved the twenty-fourth day of April, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine; authorizing and empowering said board to appoint visitors, and to transfer certain insane persons from county institutions to State hospitals," or any other law relative to such transfer.(b) To transfer the indigent insane from State hospitals for the insane to the almshouse, poorhouse, or prison of the several counties charged with their maintenance.(c) To transfer patients or inmates from one State hospital for the insane to another such hospital.(d) To transfer chronic insane from a State hospital for the insane, and from hospitals, poorhouses, and almshouses of the several counties, townships, and poor districts, to a State hospital entirely devoted to the reception, care, and treatment of chronic insane.(e) To apply to the proper court for the removal to a hospital for the insane of any person imprisoned in a penitentiary or prison and believed to be insane, under the provisions of the act, approved the fourteenth day of May, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four (Pamphlet Laws, one hundred and sixty), entitled "An act to provide for the custody of insane persons charged with and acquitted or convicted of crime," or under any other act relative to such a removal or transfer.(f) To direct any poor district to remove any deaf and dumb in an almshouse to the care of an association organized for the purpose of providing a home for deaf and dumb persons and being situate in this Commonwealth, under and in accordance with the provisions of the act, approved the seventeenth day of May, Anno Domini one thousand nine hundred and seventeen (Pamphlet Laws, two hundred and twenty-three), entitled "An act authorizing overseers and directors of the poor to enter into contracts with certain associations for the care and maintenance of indigent deaf and dumb persons, and conferring certain powers on the Board of Public Charities, its officers, and agents."(g) To supervise the transfer of inmates of one penitentiary to another under any law providing therefor.(h) To investigate and be heard before an order is made in any case to remove to any place of custody, other than a hospital, any criminal confined in a hospital by order of any court, or any lunatic committed to a hospital after an acquittal of crime. The cost of the transfer or removal and of the maintenance of any insane person transferred by, or under the direction or upon the application of, the commissioner or other officer of the department pursuant hereto, shall continue to be borne and paid in the same manner as now provided by law in the case of any such transfer or removal as aforesaid.
All traveling expenses of indigent insane persons, discharged by order of the department from any State hospital for the insane, from the hospital to their respective homes, shall be paid by the hospital; the amount thereof to be refunded to such hospital from the appropriation for the care and relief of such indigent insane then current.
(3) To order and compel the discharge of any person detained in any place as insane or of unsound mind (other than a person committed after trial and conviction for crime or by order of court). But such order shall not be made unless notice be given to the person having charge of the building in which the patient is detained and to the person or persons at whose instance the patient is detained, and reasonable opportunity given them to justify a further detention, and the department has caused the case of the patient to be personally attended and examined by its officer or agent.(4) To enforce all or any laws regulating the importation into the State of Pennsylvania of dependent, delinquent, or defective children; and all reports required to be made under such laws to the Board of Public Charities shall be made to the department, which shall have full power and authority to make rules respecting the importation of such children, not inconsistent with the provisions of the laws relative thereto.(5) To investigate the residence of a nonresident indigent insane person committed to a State hospital, to return such person to the State or country of his legal residence, and to enter into contracts with such State or country relative thereto, and to enforce an act relating to nonresident indigent insane persons committed to a State hospital.(6) To cause to be visited and examined any person found by an inquisition to be insane, and to authorize such visiting and examining by an officer or agent of the department or any board of visitors or by a physician, and to apply to the court having jurisdiction over the committee or guardian of such lunatic, or to a judge of a court of common pleas of the county in which the lunatic is a resident or detained, to make such orders for the maintenance, custody, or care of the lunatic, and for the care and disposition of the property of the lunatic, as the case may require. The notice heretofore required to be given by the committee or guardian of a person found to be insane by inquisition and by the clerk of the court into which the inquisition is returned to the Committee on Lunacy, shall hereafter be given to the department, in accordance with the general provision hereinafter contained.
(7) To appoint a board of three or more members in any county of the Commonwealth to act, without compensation, as a board of visitors to visit any institution, prison, almshouse, poorhouse, hospital, house, place, association, or society, in such county under the supervision of the department, in aid of and as the representative of the department; such board to make a report of such visitation as the department may require; and it shall be the duty of the officers or other persons having charge of such institution, prison, almshouse, poorhouse, hospital, house, place, association, or society to afford full facilities for such board to make an examination and inspection thereof.1921, May 25, P.L. 1144, § 13.