(1) The Specialized Treatment Facility for the Emotionally Disturbed, located in Harrison County, Mississippi, is recognized as now existing and shall be for the care and treatment of persons with mental illness. The facility shall have the power to receive and hold property, real, personal, and mixed, as a body corporate. The facility shall be under the direction and control of the State Board of Mental Health.

(2) Admissions shall be limited to mentally or emotionally disturbed adolescents who have been committed to the facility by a youth court judge or chancellor as provided in Section 41-21-109, or who are voluntarily admitted to the facility.

(3) With funds provided by the Legislature, by direct appropriation or authorized bond issue, with federal matching funds, or with any other available funds, the Bureau of Building, Grounds and Real Property Management may construct and equip the necessary residential and service buildings and other facilities to care for the residents of the Specialized Treatment Facility for the Emotionally Disturbed. The general design of the facility and all construction plans shall be approved and recommended by the State Department of Mental Health.

(4) The Specialized Treatment Facility for the Emotionally Disturbed shall be administered by the State Board of Mental Health. Provisions relating to the admission and care of residents at the facility shall be promulgated by the board.

(5) The Specialized Treatment Facility for the Emotionally Disturbed is authorized to establish and operate a school to meet the educational needs of its patients.

(6) Persons admitted to the Specialized Treatment Facility for the Emotionally Disturbed shall be assessed support and maintenance costs in accordance with the provisions of the state reimbursement laws as they apply to other state institutions.

(7) Any person who (a) knowingly and unlawfully or improperly causes a person to be adjudged mentally ill, (b) procures the escape of a legally committed patient or knowingly conceals an escaped legally committed patient of the facility or (c) unlawfully brings any firearm, deadly weapon or explosive into the facility or its grounds, or passes any thereof to a resident, employee or officer of the school, is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine of not less than Fifty Dollars ($50.00), or more than Two Hundred Dollars ($200.00), imprisonment for not less than six (6) months, or both.

(8) The Specialized Treatment Facility for the Emotionally Disturbed is designated as a state agency for carrying out the purposes of any act of the Congress of the United States, now existing or at any time hereafter enacted, pertaining to mental illness.

(9) If no funding for the Specialized Treatment Facility for the Emotionally Disturbed is provided by state appropriation, the Department of Mental Health may lease the facility to carry out the purposes of the facility as provided in this section and Section 41-21-109. Before the facility may be leased, the department, in conjunction with the Bureau of Building, Grounds and Real Property Management of the Department of Finance and Administration, shall publicly issue requests for proposals, advertised in the same manner as provided in Section 31-7-13 for seeking competitive sealed bids. The requests for proposals shall contain terms and conditions relating to submission of proposals, evaluation and selection of proposals, financial terms, legal responsibilities, and any other matters as the department and bureau determine to be appropriate for inclusion. Upon receiving responses to the request for proposals, the department and bureau shall select the most qualified proposal or proposals on the basis of experience and qualifications of the proposers, the technical approach, the financial arrangements, the best value and overall benefits to the state, and any other relevant factors determined to be appropriate, and from those proposals, shall negotiate and enter a contract or contracts for the lease of the facility with one or more of the persons or firms submitting proposals. However, if the department and bureau deem none of the proposals to be qualified or otherwise acceptable, the request for proposals process may be reinitiated.

(10) If the Specialized Treatment Facility for the Emotionally Disturbed is leased under subsection (9) of this section, the lessee of the facility must give first priority in hiring employees for the facility to the current employees at the facility. This condition must be included as one (1) of the specifications in the request for proposals for leasing the facility.