NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – After a number of horrifying attacks in the subway system in recent weeks—including the burning death of a woman set on fire inside a Coney Island train—Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday said she’d introduced bills in her upcoming budget proposal to change New York’s involuntary commitment laws and Kendra’s Law.
“The recent surge in violent crimes in our public transit system cannot continue — and we need to tackle this crisis head-on,” the governor said in a lengthy statement announcing the proposals.
“Many of these horrific incidents have involved people with serious untreated mental illness, the result of a failure to get treatment to people who are living on the streets and are disconnected from our mental health care system,” Hochul said. “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.”
The governor said she’d introduced legislation in her executive budget proposal this month to change New York’s involuntary commitment standards.
“Currently hospitals are able to commit individuals whose mental illness puts themselves or others at risk of serious harm, and this legislation will expand that definition to ensure more people receive the care they need,” the governor said.
“I will also introduce companion legislation to change Kendra’s Law, improving the process through which a court can order certain individuals to participate in Assisted Outpatient Treatment while also making it easier for individuals to voluntarily sign up for this treatment,” she said.
According to the state website, Kendra’s Law provides for court-ordered assisted outpatient treatment for “certain people with mental illness who, in view of their treatment history and present circumstances, are unlikely to survive safely in the community without supervision.”
In her statement, the governor urged the Legislature to act on the bills.
Mayor Eric Adams, who has been pushing for the changes, praised the news, saying, “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.”
“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. We must stop being so idealistic that we’re not realistic,” the mayor said.
Adams said recent attacks show “what happens when these issues go untreated.” He said his administration put forth a plan two years ago, the Supportive Interventions Act, that included new city protocol on involuntary removals and a package of proposed state legal reforms; the legislation has remained in committee.
The mayor said his administration has made changes at the city level in the meantime, including restoring public hospital psychiatric beds that were closed during the pandemic; doubling doubled outreach staffing at the Department of Homeless Services; expanding specialized shelters like Safe Havens and stabilization beds; bringing more than 1,400 new beds online; and connecting thousands of unsheltered people in the subway to critical services through programs like SCOUT and PATH.
Hochul listed several steps she has already taken to address transit crime, including a $1 billion investment for mental care services; the creation of mental health outreach teams; bringing nearly 1,000 inpatient psychiatric beds back online; and imposing new regulations on mental health facilities “to ensure patients are discharged with a treatment action plan.” She also pointed to a surge of New York state and MTA police officers, as well as 1,000 National Guard members, into the transit system, and the installation of security cameras in every subway car.
“This is an issue that has plagued New York for decades,” the governor said. “I took office after nearly half a century of disinvestment in mental health care and supportive housing, which directly contributed to the crisis we see on our streets and subways.”
The NYCLU, the New York affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, responded to Hochul’s proposal, saying, “The new powers the Governor seeks are not needed. Existing law already establishes when involuntary commitment and treatment are appropriate.”
“The Governor is right that the status quo response to homelessness and serious mental health issues is untenable,” the organization said. “But the change we need is not simply to lock more people away, especially those who pose no immediate threat to themselves or others. That doesn't make us safer, it distracts us from addressing the roots of our problems, and it threatens New Yorkers’ rights and liberties."
The governor said public safety is her top priority and she’d do “everything in my power to keep New Yorkers safe.”
The proposals come after several grisly subway attacks made headlines in recent weeks. It also comes as New York state prepares to implement congestion pricing, a tolling program that aims in part to get more people to ride the subway and ditch cars. The program is set to start this Sunday.
A man set a homeless woman on fire, fanned the flames and watched her burn to death on an F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station on the morning of Dec. 22.
And on Dec. 30, a man shoved another man onto the subway tracks at the 18th Street 1-line station in Chelsea, critically injuring the victim, who suffered a fractured skull, broken ribs and a ruptured spleen. That attack came just two weeks after a man was shoved to the tracks in an unprovoked attack at Herald Square.
On New Year’s Day, two men were wounded in back-to-back stabbings in Manhattan, including on the 1-train platform at the Cathedral Parkway–110th Street station in Washington Heights, and on a 2 train near the 14th Street/Sixth Avenue station in Chelsea.
There have also been the drumbeat of day-to-day subway crimes, including a stabbing on an L-train platform in Brooklyn on Dec. 30 and the stabbing of an MTA cleaner at a Bronx 5-line station on Jan. 2.
After the Dec. 30 shoving in Chelsea, the suspect’s father told the New York Times that he was stunned by the allegations, saying his son is “not a bad kid at all,” though he said he had concerns about his mental health in recent weeks because he wasn’t acting like himself.
In the fire attack in Coney Island, the suspect reportedly has substance abuse problems, including alcohol and K2, a synthetic drug that can cause agitation and psychosis.