Treatment, assessment, evaluation, screening, or programming shall not be restricted or denied to inmates on the basis of any anticipated or pending direct or collateral appeal of any criminal conviction, nor on the basis of any position taken by the appellant in any such action. The Commissioner shall adopt rules pursuant to 3 V.S.A. chapter 25 regarding the confidentiality of communications by an inmate made for the purposes of treatment, assessment, evaluations, screening, or programming while an appeal is pending. This provision neither expands nor contracts the duty of the Commissioner to adopt rules pursuant to 3 V.S.A. chapter 25. (Added 1995, No. 185 (Adj. Sess.), § 51, eff. May 22, 1996; amended 2015, No. 23, § 132.)