Gov. Kathy Hochul rides the subways in December 2024. The governor proposed increasing involuntary commitments of mentally in poor health individuals to stem violent incidents on the subways. Friday, Jan. 3, 2025.
(Susan Watts/Workplace of Governor Kathy Hochul)
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Amid a latest surge in headline-grabbing subway violence, Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed on Friday to take motion to make it simpler for authorities to involuntarily hospitalize severely mentally in poor health people typically linked to such incidents.
In an announcement, the governor introduced plans to incorporate laws in her Govt Finances proposal for the upcoming fiscal yr geared toward increasing the state’s standards for involuntary hospitalization. Nonetheless, particulars on the particular adjustments she seeks stay unclear. At present, the regulation permits authorities to commit people whose psychological sickness poses a “risk of serious harm” to themselves or others.
Hochul’s assertion is available in response to a number of latest acts of violence on the subway, together with a lady who was set on fireplace and burnt alive early final week, and a person pushed onto the tracks as a prepare entered a Manhattan station on Tuesday. She attributed many of those incidents to the prevalence of untreated psychological sickness.
“The recent surge in violent crimes in our public transit system cannot continue — and we need to tackle this crisis head-on,” Hochul mentioned. “We have a duty to protect the public from random acts of violence, and the only fair and compassionate thing to do is to get our fellow New Yorkers the help they need.”
Mayor Eric Adams, who has been pushing for the adjustments Hochul proposed since late 2022, lauded her announcement in a Friday assertion.
“We are exceptionally grateful to Governor Hochul for listening to our calls and to the calls of everyday New Yorkers, and we look forward to working with her to develop next steps to finally codify these changes into law,” Adams mentioned. “There is no dignity in withering away on the streets without the ability to help yourself, and there is no moral superiority in just walking by those individuals and doing nothing.”
Hochul and Adams have each pursued a wide range of methods to stem violence on the subways, together with surging extra cops into the system, including state police and Nationwide Guard troops to patrol sure stations, and equipping subway automobiles with surveillance cameras. However even with all of these actions, violent incidents on the subways have endured.
For the previous two years, the mayor has advocated for laws — generally known as the Supportive Interventions Act — that might primarily do what Hochul proposed. Passing the laws, Adams mentioned earlier this week, is his high precedence within the new state legislative session.
To codify the adjustments they’re in search of into regulation, Hochul and Adams might want to persuade state lawmakers, who’ve up to now resisted increasing involuntary removals.
Civil liberties teams and homeless advocates have additionally been essential of increasing involuntary hospitalizations.
Donna Lieberman, govt director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, mentioned in a Friday assertion that forcefully hospitalizing extra mentally in poor health individuals won’t make New Yorkers any safer.
“The governor is right that the status quo response to homelessness and serious mental health issues is untenable,” Lieberman mentioned. “But the change we need is not simply to lock more people away, especially those who pose no immediate threat to themselves or others.”
As a substitute, she mentioned, the state ought to concentrate on fixing the damaged psychological well being care system that individuals come into contact with after they’re dedicated.
“The real problem is there are not nearly enough mental health care resources available, especially for those who need them the most, including people subject to involuntary commitment,” Lieberman mentioned. “Further criminalizing people with mental health issues, who are themselves 11 times more likely to be the victim of crimes, will not improve care or our housing shortage.”
