Tennessee § 33-4-101 - Right to receive visitors — Right to communicate with family, attorney, physician, minister and courts.

§ 33-4-101. Right to receive visitors — Right to communicate with family, attorney, physician, minister and courts.

A person with mental illness, serious emotional disturbance, or developmental disability is entitled to: Receive visitors during regular visiting hours; and Communicate, orally or by sending and receiving uncensored mail, with the service recipient's family, attorney, personal physician, minister, and the courts. All other incoming mail or parcels may be read or opened before being delivered to a service recipient, if the chief officer of the facility believes the action is necessary for the physical or mental health of the service recipient who is the intended recipient. Mail or other communication that is not delivered to the service recipient for whom it is intended shall be returned immediately to the sender. The chief officer may make reasonable rules regarding visitors, visiting hours, and the use of communication resources. Acts 2000, ch. 947, § 1. Compiler's Notes. Former chapter 4, §§ 33-4-101 — 33-4-103 , 33-4-105 , 33-4-107 — 33-4-109 , 33-4-111 — 33-4-113 (Acts 1983, ch. 323, § 32; T.C.A., §§ 33-4-106 , 33-4-107 , 33-7-110 ; 1996, ch. 795, §§ 1-10. Former § 33-4-104 was merged with § 33-4-103 by Acts 1996, ch. 795, § 3; § 33-4-106 , which was transferred to § 33-4-105 in 1996; and § 33-4-110 , which was transferred to the second sentence of § 33-4-109 in 1996, is deleted and replaced in the revision of title 33 by Acts 2000, ch. 947, § 1, effective March 1, 2001.