Section 23517.

(a) To the extent that personnel and facilities are made available to the court, the court may include a requirement for supervised visitation by the defendant or ward to all, or any, of the following:

(1) A trauma facility, as defined in Section 1798.160 of the Health and Safety Code, a base hospital designated pursuant to Section 1798.100 or 1798.101 of the Health and Safety Code, or a general acute care hospital having a basic emergency medical services special permit issued pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 1277 of the Health and Safety Code that regularly receives victims of vehicle accidents, between the hours of 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. on a Friday or Saturday night to observe appropriate victims of vehicle accidents involving drinking drivers, under the supervision of any of the following:

(A) A registered nurse trained in providing emergency trauma care or prehospital advanced life support.

(B) An emergency room physician.

(C) An emergency medical technician-paramedic or an emergency medical technician II.

(2) A facility that cares for advanced alcoholics, such as a chemical dependency recovery hospital, as defined in Section 1250.3 of the Health and Safety Code, to observe persons in the terminal stages of alcoholism or drug abuse, under the supervision of appropriately licensed medical personnel.

(3) If approved by the county coroner, the county coroner's office or the county morgue to observe appropriate victims of vehicle accidents involving drinking drivers, under the supervision of the coroner or a deputy coroner.

(b) As used in this section, "appropriate victims" means victims whose condition is determined by the visitation supervisor to demonstrate the results of accidents involving drinking drivers without being excessively gruesome or traumatic to the probationer.

(c) If persons trained in counseling or substance abuse are made available to the court, the court may coordinate the visitation program or the visitations at any facility designated in subdivision (a) through those persons.

(d) Any visitation shall include, before any observation of victims or disabled persons by the probationer, a comprehensive counseling session with the visitation supervisor at which the supervisor shall explain and discuss the experiences which may be encountered during the visitation in order to ascertain whether the visitation is appropriate for the probationer.

(e) If at any time, whether before or during a visitation, the supervisor of the probationer determines that the visitation may be or is traumatic or otherwise inappropriate for the probationer, or is uncertain whether the visitation may be traumatic or inappropriate, the visitation shall be terminated without prejudice to the probationer.

(Added by Stats. 1998, Ch. 118, Sec. 84. Effective January 1, 1999. Operative July 1, 1999, by Section 23675.)