Brief ⁽¹⁾

HB 2127, as amended, concerns the testing for infectious diseases available to corrections employees. The bill deletes references to HIV, HIV infection, and hepatitis B to broaden the scope of tests available to corrections employees to any disease communicable from one person to another through contact with body fluids.

The definition of "correction employee" is amended to include an employee of a contractor who is under contract to provide services in a correctional institution.

Finally, if an employee comes in contact with body fluid from an offender, the Secretary of Corrections as well as the Secretary's designee, with consultation with a medical care provider, may make application to the court for an order requiring the offender to submit to the tests for an infectious disease.

Senate Committee of the Whole amendments amend two additional statutes that concern court-ordered testing for HIV.

The first statute is a part of the Kansas Juvenile Justice Code which sets out those circumstances in which a court may order an adjudicated person (a juvenile offender or persons not adjudicated under the Code because of mental disease or defect) who is charged with a sexual act or an offense in which it appears the transmission of body fluids from one person to another was involved to notify the person and the victim of the alleged offense of the availability of testing for HIV, and, in certain circumstances, to order that HIV testing take place. The amendments add testing for hepatitis B to the provisions of the statute.

The second statute applies to persons charged with or convicted of a crime in which it appears the transmission of body fluids may have taken place and authorizes court-ordered testing for AIDS. This statute is amended to add HIV and hepatitis B to the testing that may be ordered by a court.

The costs of testing and counseling are to be paid from funds appropriated to the Department of Health and Environment and direct the court to order the person charged or convicted to repay the Department for the costs of testing and counseling ordered under the statute.

Background

HB 2127, as amended, was requested by the Department of Corrections whose counsel explained that correction employees may be exposed to infectious disease other than those in current law. The bill authorizes other tests without naming specific diseases.

The Senate Committee of the Whole amendments amend into HB 2127 the provisions of SB 305, requested by the District Attorney in Sedgwick County, whose representative appeared before the Senate Committee on Public Health and Welfare to support the bill.

As amended, the bill probably has no fiscal effect on the Department of Corrections as indicated in the fiscal note prepared by the Division of the Budget, and the fiscal impact on the Department of Health and Environment from the amendments related to juveniles and others charged or convicted of certain crimes will be minimal if court-ordered testing remains at the same level as requests for HIV testing in recent years.

1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/fulltext.cgi