WILLIAMS ASKS STATE, MAYOR TO USE PUBLIC HEALTH AND SAFETY TOOLS THEY HAVE, NOT DEMAND HARMFUL LAWS

 

As the governor and mayor delay the budget in order to involuntarily commit more New Yorkers, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams is questioning why they refuse to use tools they already have available. Under a decade-old law, the state has the ability to convene mental health incident review panels in the event of certain encounters involving individuals in a mental health crisis. These panels, intended to identify systemic failures and ensure services are adequately rendered, can be convened following a request from a municipality, but have never been used.

Under Mental Hygiene Law § 31.37, the Commissioner of the New York State Office of Mental Health has the power to establish a mental health incident review panel, either by their own initiative or at the request of a local government unit following a serious incident involving a person with mental illness. However, as affirmed in a February 5 hearing in Albany, these panels have never been requested.

The Public Advocate sent letters to both City Hall and Albany, questioning the mayor on why the city has not asked for these reviews in the past and asking the state’s mental health commissioner to convene one for a recent incident in Queens involving an individual in mental health crisis. 

“Monday's incident in Queens presents us with a clear example to review if any gaps in services contributed to this tragic loss of life,” Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams wrote in his request to the state. “...People with mental illness are far more likely to be the victim of a crime than to perpetrate one, and we must be careful that the state itself is not persecuting this vulnerable population who need services, not detention. Convening a panel now would mean we actually are serious about doing all we can to prevent incidents like this from taking place. ”

This request comes as the state considers language to broaden the ability of law enforcement and other government actors to engage with and involuntarily commit people perceived as unable to meet their basic needs due to their mental health, an overly-expansive definition which threatens to criminalize homelessness, mental health issues, and poverty without providing meaningful aid. Rather than adopting this ineffective and harmful tool, the state can utilize the panels and implement the recommendations put forward by a state task force recommending a health-centered approach. 

The Public Advocate also questioned the mayor’s approach, saying in a letter “Often we see from your administration a rush to respond in the immediate aftermath of tragedy or crisis with more officers and fewer civil liberties. From homelessness to mental illness, your administration’s solution is police presence often budgetarily at the expense of the services aimed at preventing tragedies such as this.”