NY Gov Hochul wants to expand automatic commitment laws over violent crimes in the subway
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, is looking to expand the state’s involuntary commitment laws to allow hospitals to force more people with mental health problems into treatment.
This comes in the wake of a series of violent crimes on the New York City subway system.
Hochul said Friday he wants to introduce legislation during the upcoming session to amend mental health care laws to address the recent spike in violent crime on the subway.
“Most of these horrific incidents involve people with untreated dementia, which is a result of the failure to get help for people living on the streets and disconnected from our mental health system,” the governor said.
HOCHUL’S CHRISTMAS VEHICLE SAFETY CONFIDENCE COME AMID SPREAD OF VIOLENT ATTACKS
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to expand the state’s involuntary commitment laws to allow hospitals to force more people with mental health problems into treatment. (John Lamparski/Getty Images)
“We have a duty to protect the public from random acts of violence, and the only fair and compassionate thing is to get New Yorkers the help they need,” he continued.
Mental health experts say that most people with mental illness are not violent and are more likely to be victims of violent crimes than to commit violent crimes.
The governor did not provide details on what his law would change.
“Currently, hospitals are able to house mentally ill people who put themselves or others at risk of serious harm, and this law will expand that definition to ensure that more people get the help they need,” she said.
Hochul also said he will introduce another bill to improve the process by which courts can order people to receive mental health treatment and make it easier for people to voluntarily sign up for such treatment.
Police officers patrol the F train platform at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, in New York. (AP)
The governor said he is “very grateful” to the law enforcement officers who every day “fight to keep our subways safe.” But he said “we will not be able to deal with this problem fully without changes in the law of the land.”
“Public safety is my number one priority and I will do everything in my power to keep New Yorkers safe,” she said.
State law currently allows police to force people into hospitals for evaluation if they appear to be mentally ill and their behavior poses a risk of physical harm to themselves or others. Then psychiatrists must decide whether patients need to be hospitalized against their will.
The executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, Donna Lieberman, said that requiring more people to be put on probation “doesn’t make us safer, it distracts us from solving the root of our problems, and it threatens the rights and liberties of New Yorkers.”
Hochul’s statement comes after a series of violent crimes on the New York City subways, including an incident on New Year’s Eve when a man pushed another man on the subway in front of an arriving train, and on Christmas Eve when a man stabbed two people with a knife. Manhattan’s Grand Central subway station on December 22 when a suspect set a sleeping woman on fire and burned her to death.
NYC MAN CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTED MURDER AFTER ALLEGEDLY SLAMMING PASSENGERS ONTO TRAIN.
Police investigate the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn after a woman riding in a subway car caught fire and died in New York, United States on December 22, 2024. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The medical histories of the suspects in those three incidents were not clear, but New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, said the suspect accused of stabbing Grand Central had a history of mental illness as well as the suspect’s father. who pushed the man onto the sidewalk told the New York Times that he had been worried about his son’s mental health in the weeks leading up to the incident.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS PROGRAM
Adams has spent the past few years urging the state Legislature to expand mental health care laws and has previously supported a policy that would allow hospitals to detain someone who can’t meet their basic needs for food, clothing, shelter or health care. .
“To deny someone life-saving mental health care because their mental illness prevents them from realizing their greatest need for it is an unacceptable violation of our moral responsibility,” the mayor said in a statement after Hochul’s announcement.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source link
