Criminal Isolation of Elders (H 7322)

This bill would have criminalized caretakers from “isolating elders” while inappropriately included such actions as throwing away their junk mail or screening their phone calls for telemarketers.

Despite being vetoed by the Governor in 2018, H 7322, which would have criminalized caretakers from “isolating elders” but inappropriately included such actions as throwing away their junk mail or screening their phone calls for telemarketers, was again introduced and opposed by the ACLU. We noted that the bill largely criminalized conduct currently prohibited under elder abuse law, and created numerous problems in its expansion of the current statute.