Mental health courts get funding boost
/
Governor Kathy Hochul was joined this week by Chief Judge Rowan Wilson and Jethro Antoine, the chief program officer at the Center for Justice Innovation, to announce a $33 million budget allocation for mental health services, including mental health courts. Photo by Don Pollard/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul
By Jacob Kaye
New York’s mental health courts got an approximately $12 million boost in the state’s recently-passed budget, the governor and chief judge announced this week.
Overall, the state’s budget includes around $33 million in funding for various mental health services for individuals living with mental illness and involved in the state’s criminal legal system. Around a third of that funding will go directly toward the court system’s mental health courts.
Mental health courts, along with New York’s other problem-solving courts, have been a particular focus for Chief Judge Rowan Wilson, who has served as the state’s top judge for about a year. They were the focus of his February State of the Judiciary speech, when he said New Yorkers should begin to “think of our courts as problem solvers, not solely as adjudicators of which party is right.”
In that vein, Hochul and Wilson this week took a tour of the Midtown Community Justice Center in Manhattan, one of the country’s first-ever problem solving courts – it first opened in 1993.
Some of the new funding in the state’s budget will go toward the facility, allowing its operators to convert currently unused holding cells into rooms that will one day host supportive services for those experiencing severe mental illness.
Wilson said the Midtown Community Justice Center has served as a blueprint for the rest of the state’s court system to follow.
“This is the incubator and the proving ground for a better way,” Wilson said following the tour on Wednesday. “A better way that treats, instead of punishes. A better way that cares for the community as a whole. A better way that is less expensive and that improves public safety.
“In this very humble courtroom and in our more than 300 other problem-solving courts around New York, you can see the future,” he added. “What you see is a team of people with different roles – prosecutor, defense attorney, social worker, court attorney, court officer and others – all working together for a single goal: improving the lives of troubled New Yorkers, while simultaneously making our communities better, stronger and safer.”
Around $8 million in the new funding will go toward placing mental health navigators in a number of courts throughout the state. The navigators will work to identify defendants with a history of mental illness and attempt to divert them to mental health courts.
The navigators expected to be hired with the funds will likely have lived experience, and will work with a number of specialists, including local health providers and nonprofit service providers, according to the governor’s office.
Around $4.3 million will go toward building transitional housing for New Yorkers referred through the court system.
An additional $2.8 million will be put toward providing housing and services with mental illness experiencing homelessness or who are otherwise involved with the criminal justice system.
The largest allocation of the $33 million will be $14.6 million in funding to expand specialized Forensic Assertive Community Treatment teams, which are used to divert cases involving those experiencing severe mental illness. The teams connect individuals with health care and housing and ensure adherence to medication and treatment plans.
The budget also includes funding to build 200 new beds at state-operated psychiatric facilities. 25 of which will be forensic beds for providing assessments and treatments for individuals involved in the criminal justice system.
The additional beds come as defendants requiring mental health evaluations or treatment face lengthy delays.
According to one Queens judge, some defendants are held on Rikers Island for nearly half a year awaiting placement in a mental health treatment facility.
“There has been a significant delay in getting people who have been found not fit to stand trial into state hospitals,” Queens Supreme Court Justice Ira Margulis told the Eagle.
“If more beds help diminish that delay, that's a very good move,” he added.
One defendant who appeared before Margulis, Peter Zisopoulos, saw major delays after being found unfit to stand trial after he stabbed, without provocation, a soon-to-be retired FDNY medic in Astoria in 2022. During an August appearance before Margulis, Zisopoulos told the judge that he believed the NYPD had created a fake video of the stabbing and were framing him because they didn’t like him.
Nonetheless, Zisopoulos was held for five additional months on Rikers Island before being transferred to a mental health facility.
“That [delay] helps nobody,” Margulis said.
Hochul said the funding would hopefully help prevent incidents like the stabbing allegedly perpetrated by Zisopoulos – the headline-dominating random acts of violence committed by those with suspected mental health issues.
“Every New Yorker deserves to feel safe as they walk down the street, use the transit systems and go about their daily lives,” the governor said. “By addressing mental health, New York continues to help people find stability and peace while making entire communities safer.”
She also said she believes it will drive down instances of recidivism, which officials have blamed for the bulk of crimes committed in New York City.
“Untreated mental illness can fuel recidivism,” Hochul said. “We know that incarceration can worsen mental health, we know that in too many cases the cycle goes on and on.”
Even with the additional funding for mental health courts in the budget, hurdles will more than likely remain.
Though 40 of New York’s 62 counties have mental health courts – including two in Queens – the barrier to entry for New Yorkers to be approved into the courts is high and space can be limited.
In an effort to expand the number of mental health courts and the likelihood that those with mental illnesses are given access to them, Queens State Senator Jessica Ramos is carrying a bill known as the Treatment Not Jails Act.
The legislation would, among other things, require that each county have a diversion part and that judges undergo additional training on mental health courts.
The bill would also expand eligibility for mental health courts by eliminating charge-based exclusions.
“The Treatment Not Jail Act will ensure that New Yorkers with substance use disorders, mental health concerns, and other disabilities have an off-ramp from the criminal legal system to obtain treatment and support in their communities,” the text of the bill reads.
