New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) is considering expanding the state’s involuntary commitment law to allow hospitals to force treatment on more people with mental health issues. are.
This comes in the wake of a series of violent crimes on New York City’s subways.
Hochul said Friday that he wants to introduce a bill in the next Congress to amend the Mental Health Act to address the recent spike in violent crime in the metro.
“Many of these horrific incidents involve people with serious mental illnesses who go untreated, and where people living on the streets, cut off from the mental health system, cannot access treatment. “This is because of this,” the governor said.
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New York Gov. Cathy Hochul wants to expand the state’s involuntary commitment law to allow hospitals to force treatment on more people with mental health problems. (John Lamparski/Getty Images)
“We have a duty to protect our citizens from acts of random violence, and the only fair and compassionate thing to do is to ask our fellow New Yorkers for the help they need,” she continued.
Mental health experts say most people with mental illness are not violent and are far more likely to be victims of violent crimes than to commit them.
The governor did not provide details about what the bill would change.
“Currently, hospitals can admit people whose mental illness puts them at risk of serious harm to themselves or others, but this law expands that definition and allows more people to meet their needs. It will make sure they have access to care,” she said.
Hochul also said he would introduce another bill to improve the process by which courts can order people to receive assisted outpatient treatment for mental illness and make it easier for people to voluntarily enroll in those treatments. .
A police officer patrols the F train platform at Coney Island Stillwell Avenue Station on Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, in New York. (AP)
The governor said he is “deeply grateful” to law enforcement who “fight to keep our subways safe” every day. But she said, “We cannot fully address this issue without changing state law.”
“Public safety is my top priority and I will do everything I can to keep New Yorkers safe,” she said.
State law currently forces police to take people to a hospital for testing if they believe they have a mental illness or if their behavior poses a risk of physical harm to themselves or others. I admit that. The psychiatrist must then determine whether the patient requires involuntary hospitalization.
Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said mandating involuntary detention for more people “doesn’t make us safer and distracts from addressing the root of the problem.” , which threatens the rights and freedoms of New Yorkers.”
Hochul’s statement comes in the wake of a series of violent crimes on New York City’s subways, including a man who pushed another man onto the subway tracks in front of an incoming train on New Year’s Eve. It also includes an incident in which a man slashed two people with a knife on Christmas Eve. On December 22nd, a suspect set a sleeping woman on fire and burned her to death at Grand Central Station in Manhattan.
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Police are investigating at Brooklyn’s Coney Island-Stilwell Avenue station after a woman was set on fire while riding a subway car in New York, USA, on December 22, 2024. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The medical history of the suspects in these three incidents was not immediately clear, but New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) said the man accused in the Grand Central knife attack had no mental health issues. The suspect’s father had a history of mental illness. The man who pushed the man onto the railroad tracks told The New York Times that he had become concerned about his son’s mental health in the weeks before the incident.
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Adams has been lobbying the state Legislature in recent years to expand mental health laws, and previously supported a policy in which hospitals involuntarily admit people who cannot meet basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, and medical care. was. .
In response to Hochul’s announcement, the mayor said in a statement: “It is unacceptable to us to deny life-saving psychiatric treatment because a mental illness prevents us from recognizing the dire need for psychiatric treatment. It’s an abandonment.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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