§ 36-514 — Visitation; telephone; correspondence; religious freedom; legal residence

A. Every person who is detained for evaluation or treatment pursuant to this chapter shall have the following additional rights:

1. To be visited by the person's personal physician or other health care professional, guardian, agent appointed pursuant to chapter 32 of this title, attorney and clergyman or any other person, subject to reasonable limitations as the individual in charge of the agency may direct.

2. To have reasonable access to telephones between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. to make and receive confidential calls. In addition, a person who is confined pursuant to this title is allowed to make two completed local telephone calls within two hours after initial confinement. Long-distance calls are allowed if the patient can pay the agency for them or can properly charge them to another number. The agency may restrict the telephone privileges of a patient if it is notified by the person receiving the calls that the person is being harassed by the calls and wishes them curtailed or halted. Restriction of telephone privileges shall be entered into the patient's clinical record and the information in the record shall be made available on request to the person and that person's attorney, guardian or agent appointed pursuant to chapter 32 of this title.

3. To be furnished with reasonable amounts of stationery and postage and to be allowed to correspond by mail without censorship with any person.

4. To enjoy religious freedom and the right to continue the practice of the person's religion in accordance with its tenets during the detainment, except that this right may not interfere with the operation of the agency.

B. Court-ordered evaluation or treatment pursuant to this chapter does not operate to change the legal residence of a patient.