Snow White and Rose Red

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Visiting hours at Knott’s Retreat were from three to five every Saturday afternoon. That’s what Sarah Whittaker had told me on the telephone. Sarah Whittaker knew when visiting hours were; she’d been a patient at Knott’s Retreat for the past six months now.

In the state of Florida, the mental health statutes are definitive as concerns a patient’s rights, even in a private hospital. Section 394.459 forcefully states that each patient in a mental facility has the right to communicate freely and privately with persons outside the facility, and goes on to say that “each patient shall be allowed to receive, send, and mail sealed, unopened correspondence, and no patient’s incoming or outgoing correspondence shall be opened, delayed, held, or censored by the facility.” Moreover, the statutes make it clear that the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services is obliged “to establish reasonable rules governing visitors, visiting hours, and the use of telephones by patients in the least restrictive possible manner.”

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