An Act creating a registry for persons with certain disabilities and supplementing chapter 17B of Title 52 of the Revised Statutes.

Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

1. As used in this act:

"Community-based program" means a program that is under contract with the Department of Human Services or the Department of Children and Families to provide services for individuals with a mental illness or developmental disability.

"Developmental disability" means a developmental disability as defined in section 3 of P.L.1977, c.82 (C.30:6D-3).

"Mental illness" means any psychiatric disorder which has required an individual to receive either inpatient psychiatric care or outpatient psychiatric care on an extended basis.

"Registry" means the Voluntary Registry for Individuals with a Mental Illness or Developmental Disability established pursuant to P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill).

2. a. The Department of Law and Public Safety shall establish and maintain a Voluntary Registry for Individuals with a Mental Illness or Developmental Disability in order to provide law enforcement agencies with information to help the agencies assist individuals with a mental illness or developmental disability in obtaining medical, mental health, and social services. The Commissioners of Human Services and Children and Families shall provide to the Department of Law and Public Safety information identifying each community-based program and its director. The Department of Law and Public Safety shall provide the director of each community-based program with the ability to input and remove data from the registry. Access to the registry shall be limited to law enforcement officers in the State of New Jersey and the directors of community-based programs or their designees, and the information in the registry shall not be considered a public record under P.L.1963, c.73 (C.47:1A-1 et seq.) or P.L.2001, c.404 (C.47:1A-5 et al.).

b. The registry shall contain the following information:

(1) the name, date of birth, address, telephone number, physical description, and photograph of the individual with a mental illness or developmental disability;

(2) any pertinent information related to the individual's illness or disability, including related symptoms, which may assist law enforcement officers and agencies in interacting with the individual;

(3) the date on which the information was first entered into the registry and the dates any updates were made pursuant to receipt of a new enrollment and consent form; and

(4) contact information for at least two of the following: the individual's primary health care provider; the individual's case manager; a probation officer; a family member of the individual; or any other person willing to serve as an emergency contact for the individual.

3. a. The Attorney General, in consultation with the Commissioners of Human Services and Children and Families, shall develop an enrollment and consent form, which allows for collection of information to be entered into the registry, and which clearly indicates that consent to include the individual's information in the registry is voluntary, revocable, and not a precondition for receiving medical care or mental health treatment or for discharge from a facility or program. The form shall provide that written consent is required to include the individual's information in the registry. Such consent shall be provided by:

(1) the individual whose information is to be entered into the registry;

(2) the guardian of the individual, if the individual has been adjudicated incapacitated;

(3) the health care representative of the individual, as designated by an advance directive for health care or an advance directive for mental health care, if the individual has been determined to lack decision-making capacity pursuant to section 8 of P.L.1991, c.201 (C.26:2H-60) or section 9 of P.L.2005, c.233 (C.26:2H-110); or

(4) a parent or guardian of an individual, if the individual is under 18 years of age.

The written consent shall be witnessed by at least two adults, at least one of whom is not a relative of the individual by blood, marriage, or adoption or an owner, operator, or employee of a health care facility as defined in P.L.1971, c.136 (C.26:2H-1 et seq.) in which the individual is a patient, or a community residence for the developmentally disabled or a community residence for the mentally ill as defined in section 2 of P.L.1977, c.448 (C.30:11B-2) in which the individual is a resident. The individual's primary care physician or mental health care professional shall not serve as a witness.

b. The Attorney General, in consultation with the Commissioners of Human Services and Children and Families, shall develop a revocation of consent form that allows an individual or a person authorized to provide written consent pursuant to subsection a. of this section to revoke consent to include the individual's information in the registry.

4. a. No later than seven days after receiving a completed enrollment and consent form as established in subsection a. of section 3 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill), a director of a community-based program shall input an individual's information provided on the enrollment and consent into the registry. The information that is input shall be limited to information provided on the enrollment and consent form.

b. A director of a community-based program shall destroy the completed enrollment and consent form and remove an individual's information from the registry not more than seven days after:

(1) the director receives a completed revocation of consent form described in subsection b. of section 3 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill); or

(2) the third anniversary of the date on which the individual's information was first entered into the registry or the information was updated pursuant to receipt of a new enrollment and consent form.

c. No less than 90 days prior to removing an individual from the registry under paragraph (2) of subsection b. of this section, the director shall provide written notice of the impending removal to the individual and any other person who provided written consent to include the individual's information in the registry pursuant to subsection a. of section 3 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill).

5. The Department of Law and Public Safety shall establish training protocols for the State Police and local law enforcement personnel on the appropriate use of the Voluntary Registry for Individuals with a Mental Illness or Developmental Disability.

The State Police and local law enforcement agencies shall provide in-service training of their personnel according to the training protocols established pursuant to this section.

6. This act shall take effect on the first day of the fourth month next following the date of enactment, but the Attorney General, in consultation with the Commissioners of Human Services and Children and Families, may take such anticipatory administrative action in advance thereof as may be necessary for the implementation of the act.

STATEMENT

This bill directs the Department of Law and Public Safety to create a Voluntary Registry for Individuals with a Mental Illness or Developmental Disability, in order to provide law enforcement agencies with information to help the agencies assist individuals with a mental illness or developmental disability in obtaining medical, mental health, and social services. Access to the registry shall be limited to law enforcement officers in the State of New Jersey and the directors of community-based programs or their designees, and the information in the registry shall not be considered a public record.

The bill requires that the registry contain: the individual's name, date of birth, telephone number, address, physical description, and photograph; pertinent information related to the individual's illness or disability, including related symptoms, which may assist law enforcement officers and agencies in interacting with the individual; the date on which information was first entered into the registry and any updates were made; and contact information. The contact information would come from at least two of the following: the individual's primary health care provider, case manager, probation officer, family member, or any other person willing to serve as an emergency contact.

The Attorney General, in consultation with the Commissioners of Human Services and Children and Families, are to develop an enrollment and consent form, which would require written consent of the individual or an authorized representative if the individual is a minor, has been adjudicated incapacitated, or lacks decision-making capacity. The bill also requires the development of a revocation of consent form, which would allow an individual or the individual's representative to have information removed from the registry.

The bill provides that the director of a community-based program is responsible for input of data into the registry within seven days after receipt of an enrollment and consent form, and the removal of data within seven days after receipt of a revocation of consent form. The registry is limited to information provided on the enrollment and consent form. Data must also be removed from the registry on the third anniversary of the date on which the individual's information was first entered or the information was updated pursuant to receipt of a new enrollment and consent form.

Lastly, the bill requires the State Police and local law enforcement agencies to provide in-service training for their personnel according to training protocols adopted by the Department of Law and Public Safety.