Gov. Kathy Hochul is pushing the Legislature to address the terror and chaos caused by random violence by the mentally ill — but will she fight hard enough to make it happen?
She plans to use the upcoming session to 1) Finally bring common sense to New York’s rules for involuntary commitment (including inpatient treatment, i.e. mandatory hospitalization) and 2) make it easier to request mental health treatment under Kendra’s Law.
Hochul says she will specify new legislation for both in her executive budget; we look forward to the details and hope they will be ambitious enough.
She would be wise to also address some obvious related solutions, such as making Kendra’s Law permanent, which is now set to expire in 2027 — and finally passing the no-bail law by including a ‘danger’ standard comparable to that of 49. other states’.
Hochul has previously tried to push the Legislature to address mental illness — and failed.
Perhaps recent horrors, like the latest subway push, will inspire enough lawmakers to finally bow out.
To her credit, she has made some progress where she could: most recently the state Office of Mental Health published new regulations requiring comprehensive outpatient discharge plans so that people admitted for mental health reasons cannot simply cycle through the system.
She is also working on a plan to ensure that doctors can keep people in psychiatric care longer, so that they do not end up on the street again.
Additionally, she created the SCOUT program (which has helped 750 New Yorkers get off the streets and into psychiatric care, and about 600 into stable housing), opening a total of more than 700 psychiatric beds, with another 300 in the pipeline , and increased reimbursement rates for inpatient psychiatric care, so hospitals are not as eager to reduce the number of beds.
She has also funded new mental health court navigators, expanded transitional housing and funded supportive housing for people with serious mental illness. And criminal histories.
But getting lawmakers to move will require pushing back hard against the lies of the advocacy community, driven by the idea that forcing people to accept help is fundamentally wrong – no matter how clearly they are on the path to to become a threat. for the public and for themselves.
Strengthening Kendra’s Law, while important, won’t do much to stop the angry lunatics who punch or push subway passengers into the path of oncoming trains, or those who erupt in violence above ground: it’s mainly about providing assisted outpatient care treatment, or AOT.
Yet the “lawyers” resist even that, and have gotten too many prosecutors and judges to even challenge the existing process for requiring AOT.
They will fight even harder when it comes to mandatory intramural help for the troubled souls who have not yet descended to the point of killing or maiming others.
To leverage common sense changes to mental health laws, the government will have to push hard – and get support.
That is, other Democrats who agree with her on the need for action should now join in calling out the recalcitrant Democrats in the Assembly and Senate who are resisting.
Unless enough of their members join in, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins will offer only cosmetic changes, as they have done on so many other fronts in the past.
The legislature today is dominated by its radical minority; The government is right that this makes any reform an uphill battle.
But Hochul is the GOVERNOR, with a wide range of screws and sticks at her disposal.
If she wants to pull this off, she better start channeling her inner gangster.
