Any person committed to the State Department of State Hospitals as a mentally abnormal sex offender shall remain a patient committed to the department for the period specified in the court order of commitment or until discharged by the medical director of the state hospital in which the person is a patient, whichever occurs first. The medical director may grant the patient a leave of absence upon the terms and conditions as the medical director deems proper.

The petition for commitment of a person as a mentally abnormal sex offender, the reports, the court orders, and other court documents filed in the court in connection therewith shall not be open to inspection by any other than the parties to the proceeding, the attorneys for the party or parties, and the State Department of State Hospitals, except upon the written authority of a judge of the superior court of the county in which the proceedings were had.

Records of the supervision, care, and treatment given to each person committed to the State Department of State Hospitals as a mentally abnormal sex offender shall not be open to the inspection of any person not in the employ of the department or of the state hospital, except that a judge of the superior court may by order permit examination of those records. The charges for the care and treatment rendered to persons committed as mentally abnormal sex offenders shall be in accordance with the provisions of

Article 4 (commencing with

Section 7275) of

Chapter of Division 7.