After Curtis Forteau, an allegedly mentally ill man off medications for schizophrenia, stabbed 25-year-old Sabatha Tirado on the Upper East Side, a Post editorial asked a very profound question: “Should some official have been monitoring him?”
As someone with compassion for both the victim and perpetrator, the answer is yes.
As The Post pointed out, New York has a monitoring mechanism in place: Kendra’s Law allows courts to order certain individuals with serious mental illness (like Forteau), and with a history of violence (like Forteau) and not taking their meds (like Forteau), to stay in treatment as a condition of living in the community. It also forces the mental-health system to deliver the treatment and monitor compliance, once that court order is in place.
So why wasn’t mentally ill Curtis Forteau in Kendra’s Law-mandated treatment? Because state Mental Health Commissioner Michael Hogan didn’t want him there.
Last month, after two men with untreated mental illness stabbed three New York City police officers in different incidents, the Legislature started to seriously consider the Kendra’s Law Improvement Act. Kendra’s Law only allows mandated treatment; this bill would require mental-health officials to ensure that every mentally ill person being released from involuntary commitment or jail is evaluated to see if they need Kendra’s Law treatment to ensure their own safety or the safety of the public.
Remember: The system missed at least two chances to prevent Sabatha’s stabbing: when Forteau was released from jail, and when he was released from involuntary commitment.
Commissioner Hogan opposed the bill and rallied others to his cause, including Gov. Cuomo. The bill never came to a vote.
Why does the mental-health system oppose the law? Hogan claims, “Treatments that are theoretically the best but not accepted by an individual are unlikely to be effective” Sorry: There’s nothing “theoretical” here: Hogan’s own agency, as well as the federal Justice Department, have found that mandated treatment under Kendra’s Law has reduced violence, crime, arrest, incarceration, homelessness and hospitalization.
The real reason for his opposition? By identifying people who are seriously ill and need treatment, the bill would require Hogan’s Office of Mental Health to do something — rather than look the other way.
Mental-health officials want to avoid the added cost and workload that evaluating these individuals entails. No matter that it would be a boon to everyone else — vast savings and reduced workload for police, jails, prisons and courts; improved safety and quality of life for the public; better treatment for people with mental illness.
Nope: By ensuring Kendra’s Law is rarely invoked, Hogan can continue to offload the most seriously ill to the criminal-justice system. To make them someone else’s problem.
The governor can’t expect honest advice from his mental health commissioner on this issue, because the commissioner, like much of the mental-health establishment, doesn’t want to “waste” his budget on these cases.
To get honest advice about what to do about people who are seriously mentally ill and have a history of violence, Cuomo must listen to the real experts: families of people with serious mental illness, and the criminal-justice professionals who have to step in and mop up when Hogan’s mental-“health” system fails.
Start with Michael Biasotti, vice president of the New York State Chiefs of Police. He recently wrote that the failure of mental-health departments to treat the most seriously ill “in effect removed the daily care of our nation’s severely mentally ill population from the medical community and placed it with the criminal-justice system.”
Ask the top official at Riker’s Island. As a result of offloading by the Mental Health Department, Riker’s now treats more mentally ill than all state psychiatric hospitals combined.
Ask the district attorneys, the state Sheriffs Association or the state Alliance on Mental Illness.
Ask Sabatha Tirado, or even Curtis Forteau’s mother.
Most people with very serious mental illness are not violent, but that doesn’t mean Hogan & Co. should be allowed to ignore those who are.
When legislators return to Albany later this year, Gov. Cuomo should insist they pass the Kendra’s Law Improvement Act — then sign it once they do. He’ll save money for state and local governments, improve public safety and help the seriously mentally ill.
And if Commissioner Hogan squawks, Cuomo should de-commisison him.
DJ Jaffe is executive director of Mental Illness Policy Org.