NY Gov Hochul wants expanded bail bonds for violent crimes in subway

New York Gov. Kathy HochulA Democrat, he wants to expand federal 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.

Hochul said Friday he wants to introduce legislation during the upcoming legislative session to change mental health care laws to address the recent practice of violent crimes on the subway.

“Many of these horrific events involve people with serious, untreated mental illness, the result of the failure to get treatment for people living on the streets and disconnected from our mental health care system,” the governor said. said.

DURING HOCHUL'S CHRISTMAS SAFELY IN MY SECRET STEER ARRIVED THROUGH EVIL'S SMOKING ATTACKS.

“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 New Yorkers the help they need,” he said. continue.

Mental health experts say that most people with mental illness are not violent and are more likely to be victims of violent crime than to commit serious crime. aggression.

The governor did not provide details on what his law would change.

“Currently, hospitals are able to treat people whose mental illness is self-reported or who are at risk of serious harm, and this legislation will expand that definition to ensure that more people get the care they need,” he said so.

Hochul also said he would introduce another bill to improve the process by which courts can order people to receive psychiatric treatment and to make it easier for people to voluntarily sign up for those treatments.

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 solve this problem completely without changes in the state law.”

“Public safety is my number one priority and I will do everything in my power to keep New Yorkers safe,” he said.

State law now allows police to take people to hospitals for evaluation if they appear to be suffering from a mental illness and their behavior poses a risk of physical harm to themselves or others. Psychiatrists must then decide whether patients need involuntary hospitalization.

New York Civil Liberties Union executive director Donna Lieberman said requiring more people to be held involuntary “doesn't make us safe, prevents us from addressing the root causes of our problems, and threatens rights and the freedom of New Yorkers.”

Hochul's statement comes after a series of violent crimes on New York City subways, including an incident on New Year's Eve when a man pushed another man onto the tracks underground before an oncoming train, on Christmas Eve when a man stabbed two people. Manhattan's Grand Central train station on December 22 when a suspect lit a sleeping woman on fire and burned her to death.

A NYC man has been charged with attempted murder after he pushed passengers onto a subway track.

The medical records of the suspects in the three incidents were not immediately clear, but New York Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, said the man accused in the Grand Central stabbing has a history of mental illness and the suspect's father. who pushed the man onto the tracks told The New York Times that he had been worried about his son's mental health in the weeks before the incident.

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Adams has spent the last few years promoting State of the Legislature expanding mental health care laws and previously supported a plan that would allow hospitals to voluntarily commit a person unable to meet their basic needs for food, clothing, shelter or medical care.

“To deny someone who saves a life mental health care because their mental illness prevents them from recognizing their desperate need for it is an abdication of our responsibility for unacceptable behavior,” the mayor said in a statement after the Hochul announcement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.