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SPONSOR: |
Sandoval |
DATE TYPED: |
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HB |
924 |
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SHORT TITLE: |
Amend Resident Abuse & Neglect Act |
SB |
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ANALYST: |
Weber |
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APPROPRIATION
Appropriation
Contained |
Estimated
Additional Impact |
Recurring or
Non-Rec |
Fund Affected |
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FY03 |
FY04 |
FY03 |
FY04 |
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NFI |
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(Parenthesis
( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Responses
Received From
Administrative
Office of the Court
Attorney
General
Human
Services Department
Department
of Health
SUMMARY
Synopsis
of Bill
The
Resident Abuse and Neglect Act is a part of the criminal code. House Bill 924 (HB 924) amends the resident
abuse and neglect act:
(1) add that “abuse” as
defined under the act includes, but is not limited to, the enumerated
list of acts or conduct that appear in the definition,
(2) amend the definition of
neglect to change the standard from “grossly” negligent conduct to “criminally”
negligent conduct, and
(3) clarify the definition
of exploitation of the resident’s property to expressly state that the act of converting the resident’s property to
one’s own use is exploitation.
Significant Issues
The Attorney General states the following:
(1) The criminal code must
state with specificity the act or omission forbidden by law. The attempt to add to the definition of abuse
acts or conduct that are not specified and not enumerated may lead to a
constitutional challenge for vagueness.
(2) The amendment to change
the definition of neglect to refer to “criminally” negligent conduct is
proposed so that the definition of neglect will conform to the standard established
in the current Uniform Jury Instruction relating to criminal neglect.
The
Human Services Department is concerned that section 30-47-3 of HB 924 changes
the word “grossly” negligent to “criminally” negligent and appears to raise the
threshold from gross negligence to criminal intent. This seems to weaken HB 924 and reduce
negligent reporting to only that which is criminal. Gross negligence would no longer need to be
reported.
The Department of Health adds that while there may be a need to add conduct
that constitutes “abuse,” it may be unfair to residential service providers to
place the burden on them to interpret abuse without specific guidance of the
acts that represent abuse. Since not
reporting abuse is a violation of law, it should be specifically defined.
MW/prr/njw