Gov. Hochul looks to expand forced hospitalization as Albany returns to session

A string of high-profile crimes on New York City’s streets and in its subways is reverberating through the halls of the state Capitol some 150 miles away.

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced recently that she plans to propose a change to state law that would make it easier for localities like New York City to involuntarily hospitalize people in need of mental health care — a stance Mayor Eric Adams supports. While such proposals have floated around the Capitol for years, they’ve failed to gain traction as lawmakers and advocacy organizations raise civil liberties concerns.

This year, however, could be different.

“I think there's a global acknowledgement that we have to do something,” said Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. The Bronx Democrat holds significant sway in the state legislature, which returns Wednesday to begin its annual session. Over the next six months, lawmakers will pass hundreds of bills for Hochul to sign or veto.

As a recent spate of violent incidents have dominated headlines in the city – including a woman who was burned to death on an F train in Brooklyn last month and an unprovoked stabbing spree that left three dead in Manhattan in November – top lawmakers have begun to suggest it might be time to take a hard look at the state’s existing standards. Currently, New York law allows someone to be committed against their will only if they’re deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.

Changing that standard has proven thorny.

“As I always say, the devil’s in the details,” Heastie said. “We have to see the language.”

The Hochul administration first took a stance in 2022, when the state Office of Mental Health issued new guidance that deemed a person a danger to themselves if they “display an inability to meet basic living needs.” That paved the way for police to take more people into custody for an evaluation if they showed signs of mental illness and were out on the streets or in the subways. From there, they could be held for observation and treatment for set periods of time depending on their level of impairment and danger.

That rule is a state guidance, not a law, which makes it more susceptible to a potential legal challenge. The Adams administration has since backed a bill in Albany known as the Supportive Interventions Act, which would enshrine the standard into state law and allow more medical professionals to perform evaluations.

But the bill never made it to the Assembly or Senate floor for a vote last year. It’s unclear whether Hochul’s proposal — which she plans to unveil in her state budget address later this month — will mirror the legislation or take some other approach.

The New York Civil Liberties Union, which has tussled with the city over its involuntary commitment push, says broadening the state’s legal standard won’t solve what it sees as the real problem: that sufficient mental health resources are not available for people in need.

“Further criminalizing people with mental health issues … will not improve care or our housing shortage,” said Donna Lieberman, NYCLU’s executive director.

Brian Stettin, Adams’ senior adviser on severe mental illness, said the city’s approach is precisely aimed at connecting people with the mental health services they need. Hospitalization, he said, is “a means to an end, and that end is recovery.”

“When you're encountering somebody in acute psychiatric crisis who can't recognize their own need for care, that long journey of recovery has to start with getting that person to a hospital,” Stettin said in an interview with Gothamist.

Last week, Hochul touted her administration’s commitment to mental health needs, including an ongoing push to bring 1,000 inpatient beds back online at psychiatric facilities. But she said more had to be done.

Along with expanding the involuntary commitment law, Hochul says she also wants to make unspecified changes to Kendra’s Law, a state statute that allows courts to order what’s known as “assisted outpatient treatment” for people with mental health needs.

“We need to ensure that those who are suffering from severe mental illness are getting the care they need and we're also protecting the innocent bystanders on our subways and on our streets,” Hochul told reporters Friday.

Lieberman said New York must do more to respond to homelessness and serious mental health issues. But she said Hochul’s approach is the wrong one.

“The change we need is not simply to lock more people away, especially those who pose no immediate threat to themselves or others,” she said. “That doesn’t make us safer, it distracts us from addressing the roots of our problems and it threatens New Yorkers’ rights and liberties.”

Those concerns — that making it easier to hospitalize someone against their will infringes on their right to live free — have helped stall the Adams-preferred bill in Albany.

Assemblymember Ed Braunstein, a Queens Democrat who sponsors the legislation, said state law needs to reflect that a person can be a harm to themselves or others, even when the person doesn’t make an explicit threat.

“There's many instances of people who are clearly suffering from mental illness who can't properly care for themselves — whether that's providing food for themselves, clothing themselves or if a lack of treatment is causing them to have further psychiatric deterioration,” he said. “I think these people need help, and I think it's a welcome sign that the governor's willing to push for this.”

Assemblymember Micah Lasher, a Manhattan Democrat who was formerly Hochul’s director of policy, said he believes “change is in order” when it comes to altering the legal standard for commitment. But that change is “perhaps the most difficult and most controversial piece of the puzzle from the perspective of the Legislature,” he said.

He and Sen. Brad Hoyman-Sigal, also a Manhattan Democrat, are cosponsoring a narrower bill that would allow a wider array of professionals – like nurse practitioners and, in certain circumstances, social workers – to carry out the psychiatric evaluations necessary to commit someone against their will. Currently, only a psychiatrist can perform those evaluations. Lasher believes lawmakers can reach a quicker consensus on that idea.

“Sen. Hoylman-Sigal and I, without passing judgment on the wisdom of making that change, have taken some other pieces of the puzzle that we believe would be meaningful — but somewhat less controversial — and have put them together in this bill,” Lasher said.

Braunstein said he supports that change, which is also part of his bill. But he wants to see it passed as part of a more comprehensive bill on the issue, like his own.

Assemblymember Tony Simone (D-Manhattan) supports both bills, but he said legislation is just “one part of the solution.” He issued a 14-page report on Tuesday that called for boosting funding for additional psychiatric beds and supportive housing programs, among other things.

“What we're doing is not working,” he said. “So we need a new approach, and that calls for not just new legislation and changes to some of our laws on involuntary commitment, but also figuring out where we can help these folks with their special needs.”

The Legislature’s annual session is set to run through June 12. Hochul will deliver her State of the State address, which lays out her agenda for the year, on Tuesday.