The commissioner and the State board shall have the power of visitation and inspection of all county and city jails or places of detention, county or city workhouses, county penitentiaries, county mental hospitals, poor farms, almshouses, county and municipal schools of detention, and privately maintained institutions and noninstitutional agencies for the care and treatment of persons with mental illness or developmental disabilities and persons who are blind, visually impaired, deaf blind, or hard of hearing, or other institutions, and noninstitutional agencies conducted for the benefit of persons with a physical or mental deficiency, or the furnishing of board, lodging or care for children. The commissioner or his duly authorized agent, and any member of the State board shall be admitted to any and all parts of any such institutions at any time, for the purpose of inspecting and observing the physical condition thereof, the methods of management and operation thereof, the physical condition of the inmates, the care, treatment and discipline thereof, and also to determine whether such persons so admitted or committed are properly and adequately boarded, lodged, treated, cared for and maintained. The commissioner and the State board may make such report with reference to the result of such observation and inspection and recommendation with reference thereto, as they may determine.
N.J.S. § 30:1-15