PRINTER'S NO. 791
No. 731 Session of 1973
INTRODUCED BY REIBMAN, MURRAY, LAMB, COPPERSMITH, FRAME, HOBBS,
BELL, ROSS, SCALES AND O'PAKE, APRIL 30, 1973
REFERRED TO PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE, APRIL 30, 1973
AN ACT
1 Relating to the elimination of peonage in State institutions for
2 mental patients and mentally retarded persons, establishing a
3 remuneration schedule for services of such inmates;
4 prescribing therapeutic safeguards; providing inmates with
5 legal rights, hearings, and remedies; and making an
6 appropriation.
7 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
8 hereby enacts as follows:
9 Section 1. Short Title.--This act shall be known and may be
10 cited as the "Institutional Peonage Abolishment Act."
11 Section 2. Definitions.--As used in this act:
12 (1) "Institution" or "institutions" means mental
13 institutions operated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania or any
14 institution for the mentally retarded operated by the
15 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
16 (2) "Patient" means any inmate or patient of any mental
17 institution operated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania or of
18 any institution for the mentally retarded operated by the
19 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
20 (3) "Remuneration Board" means the State Institutional
1 Patient Remuneration Board.
2 (4) "Remuneration Schedule" means the State Institutional
3 Patient Remuneration Schedule prepared and maintained by the
4 State Institutional Patient Remuneration Board.
5 (5) "Secretary" means the Secretary of Public Welfare.
6 Section 3. Establishment of State Institution Patient
7 Remuneration Board.--Seven persons shall be appointed, five by
8 the Bureau of Mental Health Services of the Department of Public
9 Welfare and two by the Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation of
10 the Department of Labor and Industry, who shall constitute and
11 function as one board for the purposes of this act, and when so
12 functioning, shall be known as the State Institutional Patient
13 Remuneration Board.
14 Section 4. Preparation of Occupational Classifications;
15 Remuneration Schedules.--(a) It shall be the duty of the
16 Remuneration Board to prepare and maintain a schedule of
17 occupational classifications covering the industrial activity of
18 patients of State institutions. The schedule of occupational
19 classifications shall be based upon the classifications
20 contained in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, U. S.
21 Department of Labor.
22 (b) The schedule of occupational classifications shall
23 include appropriate remuneration schedules for such occupational
24 classifications, and shall be known as the State Institutional
25 Patient Remuneration Schedule.
26 (c) Each occupational classification shall include an
27 appropriate number of remuneration grades to cover varying
28 levels of performance. In establishing the amounts of
29 remuneration for each grade, the average patient performance
30 levels, based on the experience of the State institutions
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1 covered by this act which utilize patient labor, shall be taken
2 into consideration.
3 (d) The Remuneration Schedule shall be completed and
4 presented to the secretary within six months after the effective
5 date of this act, and it shall become effective as so presented
6 within seven months after the effective date of this act.
7 (e) The Remuneration Board shall periodically review the
8 Remuneration Schedule and shall at least once every two years
9 notify the secretary of appropriate changes (including additions
10 and deletions) in occupational classifications and remuneration
11 schedules. Any such changes presented shall become effective one
12 month after so presented.
13 (f) On and after the date the Remuneration Schedule shall
14 first become effective, each person confined in any institution
15 shall be entitled to financial remuneration by the Commonwealth,
16 at the rate set forth in the Remuneration Schedule, for all
17 industrial activity that fulfills labor needs of the
18 institution.
19 (g) In determining what industrial activity shall be
20 remunerated the criteria shall be whether the function is one
21 which contributes to the operation or maintenance of the
22 institution and whether institutions other than State operated
23 institutions would ordinarily hire someone to fulfill such a
24 function. The fact that the individual patient's level of
25 performance is not equal to the performance level of personnel
26 that might otherwise be obtained from outside the institution
27 shall not be a basis for excluding the function from those which
28 must be remunerated.
29 Section 5. Allocation of Remuneration.--Any financial
30 remuneration to which patients shall be entitled under the
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1 provisions of this act shall be allocated in the following
2 manner and order of priority:
3 (1) The first thirty dollars ($30) per month shall be
4 available to the patient for minor incidental needs and desires.
5 (2) The next twenty-five dollars ($25) per month shall be
6 available for clothes as needed by the patient. Such needs shall
7 be determined by the social worker and the psychiatrist
8 responsible for the patient's progress, taking into
9 consideration, to the extent practicable, the desires of the
10 patient.
11 (3) The remainder shall be applied to the charges of the
12 institution for maintenance, care, and treatment of the patient,
13 to the extent of the actual charge for such patient.
14 (4) If any moneys remain and the patient has dependents whom
15 he is legally responsible to support, the patient may designate
16 an amount to be paid to or for the support of such dependents.
17 No patient shall be required, however, to allocate any of his
18 remuneration for this purpose.
19 (5) If any special medical needs exist or arise which the
20 Department of Public Welfare does not furnish as part of its
21 program for patients in mental institutions, such as eyeglasses
22 and dentures, such medical needs shall have priority over all
23 the other items herein specified for which patients' earnings
24 may be allocated.
25 (6) Any moneys which may remain after the above items have
26 been fulfilled shall belong to the patient and shall be handled
27 in the same manner as any other assets of the patient.
28 Section 6. Maintaining Records and Accounts.--Accurate
29 records shall be kept of the amounts earned and the amounts
30 deducted and/or spent from each patient's account. Every
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1 withdrawal shall be confirmed by voucher or receipt signed by
2 the patient. Each patient shall be given a written statement
3 semiannually and at the time of his discharge, showing the
4 credits to and withdrawals from his account and the balance as
5 of the date of the statement.
6 Section 7. Assignment and Supervision of Industrial
7 Activity.--(a) All industrial activity of each patient shall be
8 prescribed by the patient's psychiatrist and determined and
9 supervised by the industrial therapy department of the
10 institution. Each industrial therapist responsible for any
11 patient referrals for and supervision of industrial activity in
12 any institution shall have at least the minimum qualifications
13 established by the Minimum Treatment Standards Committee for
14 State mental institutions; provided that if no such committee
15 has been appointed, then by the minimum standards of the
16 American Psychiatric Association. Each referral by the
17 industrial therapy department to the personnel department shall
18 be made solely on the basis of the therapeutic needs of the
19 patient or the therapeutic benefits that will accrue to such
20 patient, taking into account the patient's ability to perform or
21 learn to perform the particular occupational duties.
22 (b) The industrial therapy department in each institution
23 shall confer with the personnel department of the institution on
24 a continuing basis to ascertain what labor needs exist in the
25 institution that can be satisfactorily filled by patients.
26 Patients who would benefit therapeutically and who are able to
27 handle the available positions or are trainable may be referred
28 by the industrial therapy department to the personnel department
29 for consideration for each such available position with the
30 approval of the patient's psychiatrist.
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1 (c) The industrial therapy department and the personnel
2 department shall confer on a regular basis in respect to the
3 adjustment, efficiency, and progress of each patient worker. The
4 industrial therapy department shall have a representative in
5 each occupational area to oversee the therapeutic aspects of the
6 patient's industrial activity. The personnel department shall
7 not be required to retain a patient in any position who cannot
8 fulfill the requirements of the position. The therapeutic needs
9 of the patient shall never become subordinate to the labor needs
10 of the institution in the initial or continued occupation of any
11 patient. The determination of the therapeutic benefit derived by
12 the patient shall be the responsibility of the industrial
13 therapy department and the patient's psychiatrist at all times.
14 Section 8. Remuneration Board's Duty to Review and
15 Investigate.--(a) If any disagreement as to the patient's proper
16 grade for remuneration cannot be jointly resolved, the
17 industrial therapy department shall refer the case to the
18 Remuneration Board for review. The Remuneration Board, after
19 personal investigation, shall make the final determination.
20 (b) It shall be the responsibility of the Remuneration Board
21 to annually review the records of each institution and make such
22 other investigations as it deems appropriate to ascertain that
23 each institution is carrying out the duties imposed in this act.
24 Section 9. Patient's Legal Rights to Review and Court
25 Action.--(a) Any patient who believes that he has not been
26 properly remunerated may petition personally or by his guardian
27 or designated legally responsible relative or next friend to the
28 Remuneration Board for review.
29 (b) If the petitioner is not satisfied with the findings and
30 remedy, if any, granted by the Remuneration Board, the
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1 petitioner may take appropriate court action for restitution.
2 The right to court action shall not include, however, the right
3 to a review of whether the remuneration grade within any
4 particular occupational classification was adequate for the
5 patient's level of performance.
6 Section 10. Repealer.--All acts and parts of acts in so far
7 as they are inconsistent with the provisions of this act are
8 hereby repealed.
9 Section 11. Severability.--If any provision of this act or
10 the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held
11 unconstitutional the remainder of the act and the application of
12 such provision to other persons or circumstances shall not be
13 affected thereby, and to this end the provisions of this act are
14 declared to be severable.
15 Section 12. Appropriation.--The sum of two million dollars
16 ($2,000,000), or as much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby
17 appropriated to the Department of Public Welfare for the fiscal
18 year 1973-74 for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of
19 this act.
20 Section 13. Effective Date.--This act shall take effect
21 January 1, 1974.
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