§ 23-69-2. New England compact on involuntary detention for tuberculosis control.
The New England compact on involuntary detention for tuberculosis control, hereinafter called “the compact”, is hereby enacted into law and entered into with all other jurisdictions legally joining therein, in the form substantially as follows:
The purposes of this compact are to:
(1) Promote the communicable disease health protection of the public and individuals within the party states.
(2) Provide mutual aid and assistance in communicable disease matters, specifically tuberculosis control, through the utilization of regional centers for the involuntary detention of persons with tuberculosis who will not accept treatment and therefore pose a threat to the health of the public.
(3) Encourage and facilitate the efficient use of personnel, equipment and physical plants by furthering the orderly acquisition and sharing of resources useful for programs of tuberculosis control.
This compact shall become effective when enacted into law by any two (2) or more of the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. Thereafter it shall become effective with respect to any other aforementioned state upon its enacting this compact into law.
(a) It shall be the duty of each party state to formulate and put into effect an intrastate procedure for the legal detention of persons with tuberculosis refusing treatment which is compatible with the interstate tuberculosis control plan formulated pursuant to this compact.
(b) Whenever the compact administrator of a party state requests aid from the compact administrator of any other party state pursuant to this compact, it shall be the duty of the requested state to render all possible aid which is consonant with the maintenance and protection of its own people. The compact administrator of a party state may delegate any or all of his or her authority to request aid or respond to requests for aid pursuant to this compact to one (1) or more subordinates, in order that requests for aid and responses thereto shall not be impeded by the reason of absence or unavailability of the compact administrator. Any compact administrator making such a delegation shall inform all the other compact administrators thereof, and also shall inform them of the identity of the subordinate or subordinates to whom delegation has been made.
(c) Each party state shall maintain adequate tuberculosis control personnel and infrastructure to meet normal demands for tuberculosis control within its borders.
(d) Each party state shall ensure that any Rhode Island resident treated pursuant to this compact be provided all protections contained in R.I.G.L. 23-10-6.
(a) Whenever the officers or employees of any party state are rendering outside aid pursuant to the request of another party state under this compact, the officers or employees of such state shall, under the direction of the authorities of the state to which they are rendering aid, have the same powers, duties, rights, privileges and immunities as comparable officers and employees of the state to which they are rendering aid.
(b) No party state or its officers or employees rendering outside aid pursuant to this compact shall be liable on account of any act or omission on their part while so engaged, or on account of the maintenance or use of any equipment or supplies in connection therewith.
(c) All liability that may arise either under the laws of the requesting state or under the laws of the abiding state or under the laws of a third state, on account of or in connection with a request for aid, shall be assumed and borne by the requesting state.
(d) Any party state rendering aid to provide involuntary detention for tuberculosis control shall be reimbursed by the party state receiving such aid for any loss or damage to, or expense incurred in the operation of any equipment answering a request for aid, and for the cost of all materials, transportation and maintenance of employees and equipment incurred in connection with such request; provided that nothing herein contained shall prevent any assisting party state from assuming such loss, damage, expense or other cost or from donating such services to the receiving party state without charge or cost.
(e) Each party state shall provide for the payment of compensation and death benefits to injured officers and employees and the representatives of deceased employees in case employees sustain injuries, contract disease or are killed while rendering aid pursuant to this compact, in the same manner and on the same terms as if the injury, disease or death were sustained within the state for or in which the employee was regularly employed.
(a) In recognition of the mutual benefits, in addition to those resulting from Article IV, accruing to the party states from the existence and flexible use of professional or technical personnel having special skills or training related to tuberculosis control, such personnel may be made available to a party state by appropriate departments of other party states: provided that the borrower reimburses such party state regularly employing the personnel in question for any cost of making such personnel available, including a prorated share of the salary or other compensation of the personnel involved.
(b) Nothing in this article shall be construed to limit or modify in any way the provisions of article IV of this compact.
Each party state shall have a compact administrator who shall be the head of the state agency responsible for tuberculosis control, and who:
(1) Shall coordinate activities pursuant to this compact in and on behalf of his or her state.
(2) Serving jointly with the compact administrators of the other party states, shall develop and keep current an interstate tuberculosis control involuntary detention plan; consider such other matters as may be appropriate in connection with programs of cooperation in the field of tuberculosis control and allied areas of common interest; and formulate procedures for claims and reimbursement under the provisions of article IV.
Nothing in this compact shall be construed to:
(1) Authorize or permit any party state to curtail or diminish its tuberculosis control program, equipment, services or facilities.
(2) Limit or restrict the powers of any state ratifying the same to provide tuberculosis control to protect the health of the public and individuals, or to prohibit the enactment or enforcement of state laws, rules or regulations intended to provide such tuberculosis control.
(3) Affect any existing or future cooperative relationship or arrangement between federal, state or local governments and a party state or states.
Any party state may withdraw from this compact by enacting a statute repealing the same, but no such withdrawal shall take effect until one (1) year after the governor of the withdrawing state has given notice in writing of the withdrawal to the governors of the other party states. No withdrawal shall affect any liability already incurred by or chargeable to a party state prior to the time of such withdrawal.
It is the legislative intent that the provisions of this compact be reasonably and liberally construed. The provisions of this compact shall be severable and if any phrase, clause, sentence, or provision of this compact is declared to be unconstitutional or the applicability thereof, to any state, agency, person or circumstances is held invalid, the constitutionality of the remainder of this compact and the applicability thereof, to any other state, agency, person or circumstance shall not be affected thereby.
History of Section.P.L. 1997, ch. 46, § 1; P.L. 1997, ch. 146, § 1.