SECTIONS 7500-7505 - California Statutes

PENAL CODE

SECTION 7500-7505

7500. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) The public peace, health, and safety is endangered by the
spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), acquired
immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and hepatitis B and C within state
and local correctional institutions.
(b) The spread of AIDS and hepatitis B and C within prison and
jail populations presents a grave danger to inmates within those
populations, law enforcement personnel, and other persons in contact
with a prisoner infected with the HIV virus as well as hepatitis B
and C, both during and after the prisoner's confinement. Law
enforcement personnel and prisoners are particularly vulnerable to
this danger, due to the high number of assaults, violent acts, and
transmissions of bodily fluids that occur within correctional
institutions.
(c) HIV, as well as hepatitis B and C, have the potential of
spreading more rapidly within the closed society of correctional
institutions than outside these institutions. These major public
health problems are compounded by the further potential of the rapid
spread of communicable disease outside correctional institutions
through contacts of an infected prisoner who is not treated and
monitored upon his or her release, or by law enforcement employees
who are unknowingly infected.
(d) New diseases of epidemic proportions such as AIDS may suddenly
and tragically infect large numbers of people. This title primarily
addresses a current problem of this nature, the spread of HIV, as
well as hepatitis B and C, among those in correctional institutions
and among the people of California.
(e) HIV, AIDS, and hepatitis B and C pose a major threat to the
public health and safety of those governmental employees and others
whose responsibilities bring them into direct contact with persons
afflicted with those illnesses, and the protection of the health and
safety of these personnel is of equal importance to the people of the
State of California as the protection of the health of those
afflicted with the diseases who are held in custodial situations.
(f) Testing described in this title of individuals housed within
state and local correctional facilities for evidence of infection by
HIV and hepatitis B and C would help to provide a level of
information necessary for effective disease control within these
institutions and would help to preserve the health of public
employees, inmates, and persons in custody, as well as that of the
public at large. This testing is not intended to be, and shall not be
construed as, a prototypical method of disease control for the
public at large.

7501. In order to address the public health crisis described in
Section 7500, it is the intent of the Legislature to do all of the
following:
(a) Establish a procedure through which custodial and law
enforcement personnel are required to report certain situations and
may request and be granted a confidential test for HIV or for
hepatitis B or C of an inmate convicted of a crime, or a person
arrested or taken into custody, if the custodial or law enforcement
officer has reason to believe that he or she has come into contact
with the blood or semen of an inmate or in any other manner has come
into contact with the inmate in a way that could result in HIV
infection, or the transmission of hepatitis B or C, based on the
latest determinations and conclusions by the federal Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention and the State Department of Public
Health on means for the transmission of AIDS or hepatitis B and C,
and if appropriate medical authorities, as provided in this title,
reasonably believe there is good medical reason for the test.
(b) Permit inmates to file similar requests stemming from contacts
with other inmates.
(c) Require that probation and parole officers be notified when an
inmate being released from incarceration is infected with AIDS or
hepatitis B or C, and permit these officers to notify certain persons
who will come into contact with the parolee or probationer, if
authorized by law.
(d) Authorize prison medical staff authorities to require tests of
a jail or prison inmate under certain circumstances, if they
reasonably believe, based upon the existence of supporting evidence,
that the inmate may be suffering from HIV infection or AIDS or
hepatitis B or C and is a danger to other inmates or staff.
(e) Require supervisory and medical personnel of correctional
institutions to which this title applies to notify staff if they are
coming into close and direct contact with persons in custody who have
tested positive or who have AIDS or hepatitis B or C, and provide
appropriate counseling and safety equipment.

7502. As used in this title, the following terms shall have the
following meanings:
(a) "Correctional institution" means any state prison, county
jail, city jail, Division of Juvenile Justice facility, county- or
city-operated juvenile facility, including juvenile halls, camps, or
schools, or any other state or local correctional institution,
including a court facility.
(b) "Counseling" means counseling by a licensed physician and
surgeon, registered nurse, or other health professional who meets
guidelines which shall be established by the State Department of
Public Health for purposes of providing counseling on AIDS and
hepatitis B and C to inmates, persons in custody, and other persons
pursuant to this title.
(c) "Law enforcement employee" means correctional officers, peace
officers, and other staff of a correctional institution, California
Highway Patrol officers, county sheriff's deputies, city police
officers, parole officers, probation officers, and city, county, or
state employees including but not limited to, judges, bailiffs, court
personnel, prosecutors and staff, and public defenders and staff,
who, as part of the judicial process involving an inmate of a
correctional institution, or a person charged with a crime, including
a minor charged with an offense for which he or she may be made a
ward of the court under Section 602 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code, are engaged in the custody, transportation, prosecution,
representation, or care of these persons.
(d) "AIDS" means acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
(e) "Human immunodeficiency virus" or "HIV" means the etiologic
virus of AIDS.
(f) "HIV test" or "HIV testing" means any clinical laboratory test
approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration for HIV,
component of HIV, or antibodies to HIV.
(g) "Inmate" means any of the following:
(1) A person in a state prison, or city and county jail, who has
been either convicted of a crime or arrested or taken into custody,
whether or not he or she has been charged with a crime.
(2) Any person in a Division of Juvenile Justice facility, or
county- or city-operated juvenile facility, who has committed an act,
or been charged with committing an act specified in Section 602 of
the Welfare and Institutions Code.
(h) "Bodily fluids" means blood, semen, or any other bodily fluid
identified by either the federal Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention or State Department of Public Health in appropriate
regulations as capable of transmitting HIV or hepatitis B or C.
(i) "Minor" means a person under 15 years of age.

7503. The Department of Corrections, the Department of the Youth
Authority, and county health officers shall adopt guidelines
permitting a chief medical officer to delegate his or her medical
responsibilities under this title to other qualified physicians and
surgeons, and his or her nonmedical responsibilities to other
qualified persons, as appropriate. The chief medical officer shall
not, however, delegate the duty to determine whether mandatory
testing is required as provided for in Chapter 2 (commencing with
Section 7510) except to another qualified physician designated to act
as chief medical officer in the chief medical officer's absence.

7504. Actions taken pursuant to this title shall not be subject to
subdivisions (a) to (c), inclusive, of Section 120980 of the Health
and Safety Code. In addition, the requirements of subdivision (a) of
Section 120990 of the Health and Safety Code, shall not apply to
testing performed pursuant to this title.

7505. This title is intended to provide the authority for state and
local correctional, custodial, and law enforcement agencies to
perform medical testing of inmates and prisoners for the purposes
specified herein. However, notwithstanding any other provision of
this title, this title shall serve as authority for the HIV testing
of prisoners in only those local facilities where the governing body
has adopted a resolution affirming that it shall be operative in that
city, county, or city and county. Testing within state correctional
facilities under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections
and state juvenile facilities under the jurisdiction of the
Department of the Youth Authority shall not be affected by this
requirement.