Alliance Alert: Lawmakers expressed major concerns about Governor Hochul’s controversial proposal to expand involuntary inpatient and outpatient commitment, voicing doubts about its effectiveness and potential consequences. During this week’s mental health budget hearing, advocates including Harvey Rosenthal, Ruth Lowenkron, and Glenn Liebman testified, urging the state to prioritize investments in community-based services and implement Incident Review Panels rather than relying on coercive treatment measures.
New data from New York City on involuntary removals raises serious concerns about the impact of forced intervention strategies. The findings show that these removals disproportionately affect communities of color, and most individuals picked up are not on the street but coming from private residences. Many of those taken in are not actually admitted to hospitals, raising questions about whether these policies will truly help people experiencing homelessness or simply further traumatize individuals without providing real care.
The Alliance for Rights and Recovery will continue to advocate for real solutions, including:
- Increased investment in community-based services like Clubhouses, adequately funded INSET and Peer Bridger Programs, Housing First units, and Family Support
- A 7.8% rate enhancement for agencies and their workforce
- Implementation of Incident Review Panels for oversight and accountability
- $16.5 million exclusively to expand enhanced voluntary services for individuals at risk of court-ordered outpatient treatment
The Alliance for Rights and Recovery knows that protecting civil rights and improving community safety are not mutually exclusive, both can and must be achieved together! The fight for rights, recovery, and real investment in care continues. You can join our efforts by attending our upcoming forums and this year’s legislative day on March 4th!
Harvey’s testimony was well received and has been heavily used in recent media coverage. We have included a long list of coverage of the hearing, which includes quotes from Harvey and Luke, and the current debate on the controversial proposal. We encourage you to read through the articles included, but we have also offered a summary of the coverage and where the debate currently stands. You can also read Harvey’s full testimony in the document attached to this Enews. Read below for more.
Summary of Media Coverage:
Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposal to expand involuntary inpatient and outpatient commitment in New York is facing strong pushback from lawmakers and advocates. Many, including Senate Mental Health Chair Samra Brouk and Assembly Mental Health Chair Jo Anne Simon, argue that forcing more people into treatment will not fix the state’s struggling mental health system. Lawmakers raised concerns about the need for the proposed changes, inadequate community-based services, and lack of discharge planning, questioning whether expanding forced treatment would lead to real recovery or just remove people from the public eye for a short period. The state is currently spending $1 million to study Kendra’s Law involuntary outpatient commitment, with results due in 2026, leading many to call the expansion premature and lacking evidence. Governor Hochul has indicated she is open to compromise, setting up possible negotiations with legislators to address their concerns.
Advocates, including Harvey Rosenthal of the Alliance for Rights and Recovery, Ruth Lowenkron of NYLPI, and Glenn Liebman of MHANYS, testified against the proposal, warning of its disproportionate impact on communities of color. New York City data from 2024 shows that Black New Yorkers made up 54% of involuntary transports, despite being only 23% of the city’s population. Additionally, the majority of involuntary transports originated from private homes, not in public spaces, raising concerns that expanded commitment will further destabilize individuals rather than help people on the street, as proponents of expanding involuntary commitment claim. Advocates also emphasized that people with mental health challenges are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators, pushing back on fear-driven policies linking mental illness to crime.
Instead of expanding involuntary treatment, advocates are calling for greater investments in voluntary, community-based services. Harvey Rosenthal and others urged the state to implement Incident Review Panels, which would analyze critical incidents involving people with mental health challenges, identify system failures, and recommend improvements. Lawmakers and experts are pushing for investments in Daniel’s Law crisis response teams, INSET outreach teams, Peer Bridger programs, Housing First, and Clubhouses—proven alternatives that support recovery without coercion. The Alliance will continue advocating for these investments, a 7.8% rate enhancement for providers, and policies that prioritize dignity, choice, and long-term support over forced treatment.
Recent Media Coverage
State Lawmakers Hesitant to give Hochul Green Light on Mental Health Priorities
By Bernadette Hogan | Spectrum/NY1 | February 5, 2025
As Gov. Kathy Hochul tries to expand New York’s ability to involuntarily commit the mentally ill, some lawmakers are saying not-so-fast.
The state’s mental health chief was on the hot seat Wednesday — tasked with defending Hochul’s plan to amend standards allowing health professionals more bandwidth to commit mentally ill people against their will.
“How do you think we avoid this from being a sweeping change, so we are saying: homelessness now equals you can be involuntarily committed?” asked State Sen. Samra Brouk, a Rochester Democrat who chairs the chamber’s Committee on Mental Health, during a legislative hearing analyzing the state budget in Albany.
“This is for a very small, select group of individuals who are at very substantial risk to physical harm because they are unable to take care of their daily needs,” Ann Marie Sullivan, commissioner of the NYS Office of Mental Health, said.
…Now, lawmakers are confronted with a spate of violent crimes that experts say began with a failure to treat mental illness.
“It’s more in the public experience. There’s been more incidents that people are concerned about, rightfully so, and we all recognize that something needs to be done. So, now it’s just a matter of getting together around the table and figuring out exactly what that is,” Queens Democrat Michael Gianaris, the State Senate Deputy Majority Leader, said.
Incidents include subway shovings that have led to serious injury or death, and even the high-profile trial and acquittal of Daniel Penny, who was charged with strangling a mentally ill man on the subway.
“I don’t think that anyone is talking about the obliteration of civil liberties. Any change that is on the table is going to be a thoughtful adjustment to the statute,” Assemblyman Micah Lasher said.
But considerable concerns remain.
“Our workforce is suffering greatly. You know, we see it every day with our 30% turnover rate with our people, or just leaving for Amazon and, you know, McDonald’s and wherever, because they can make more money there,” Glenn Liebman, CEO of the Mental Health Association in New York, said.
“We always say that you have to be mission driven to work in our field, but mission driven doesn’t put food on the table. So we’ve got to really get some more funding in there and more investments in mental health,” Liebman added.
Liebman was the first director of Kendra’s Law in the early 2000s. It allows judges to mandate psychiatric evaluations in some circumstances. “We saw a lot of counties saying, let’s look at all our alternatives,” he explained. “A: it’s stigmatizing for an individual to stand before a judge. B: it’s expensive to go through the court order process to get the psychiatrist, to get everything in place, so why don’t we look at alternatives to Kendra’s Law.”
The state is also spending $1 million to study assisted outpatient treatment — research that won’t be ready until 2026.
“What we do know from our outcomes that we look at is that AOT decreases incarcerations, it decreases hospitalizations, it decreases episodes of violence,” Sullivan said.
———–
Hochul, Some N.Y. Lawmakers at Odds on Mental Health Spending
By Kate Lisa | Spectrum News | February 4, 2025
State lawmakers who lead mental health policy have concerns about Gov. Kathy Hochul’s revisions to mental health law in her executive budget that expand criteria for involuntary commitment.
Hochul’s budget would build more housing and centers for people with mental illness, but it also lowers the standard to force a person with a mental health issue to be hospitalized for treatment. But several lawmakers don’t agree with the governor’s approach to address an uptick of people suffering from mental health episodes.
…”Community services are more successful for people with serious mental illness,” Simon said. “Those peer-led efforts where people are getting support in the community, recognizing that for many people, what they need is supported housing.” Simon argues the state cannot make it easier to hospitalize a person with a mental illness without more for services and the workforce.
Mental health advocates fear $16 million for counties in Hochul’s budget to strengthen assisted outpatient treatment programs will erode trust in the system — and worry judges will not use proper discretion to order involuntary commitment, which disproportionately impacts people of color.
“A lot of politicians and the media are looking for a very quick fix to show they’re tough on crime, but I think one of the mistakes is to conflate mental health challenges with being violent or criminals here,” said Luke Sikinyi, director for public policy, Alliance for Rights & Recovery.
…Lawmakers and advocates widely support several mental health proposals in Hochul’s budget, including 200 additional inpatient psychiatric beds.
Senate Mental Health Committee Chair Samra Brouk said the budget must better coordinate community-based mental health services. The senator sponsored Daniel’s Law, which mandates a team trained in crisis services respond to calls of a person struggling with mental health or substance abuse in place of police. She wants the program funded in communities across the state. “We need to meet people where they are,” Brouk said. “We need to have individuals who are trained with how to talk to someone who has severe mental illness. And when we have done that, we have seen success, right?”
But she’s also wary of expanding involuntary commitment — noting she’s heard anecdotes that reveal officials in the state’s medical and judicial systems misuse the existing statute and fail to involuntarily commit people covered by the current criteria.
..”Robust investments in the mental health workforce would help address the mental health crisis, Brouk said.
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie have said they are open to the governor’s proposal to loosen involuntary commitment standards after heightened public safety fears in wake of recent crimes.
Gov. Hochul on Tuesday told reporters she discussed her proposal with legislative leaders, and she’s ready to compromise…
——–
Lawmakers Torn on Hochul’s Involuntary Commitment Agenda
By Katelyn Cordero and Maya Kaufman | Politico | February 5, 2025
Some lawmakers focused on the rights of the individuals, while others contended that the state’s psychiatric hospitals don’t have the capacity to take on more patients.
The panel of lawmakers questioning Sullivan included a few outright critics of Hochul’s proposals. Among them was Sen. Samra Brouk, who chairs the chamber’s mental health committee and wants the state to develop standardized protocols for responding to behavioral health crises, in accordance with recent recommendations by a statewide task force.
Brouk said the state’s push to expand court-ordered mental health services — through a program known as assisted outpatient treatment — seemed premature because researchers are in the middle of studying its impact. Those findings are due in 2026.
Mental health advocacy groups echoed those calls. Harvey Rosenthal, who spearheads a coalition of 90 mental health organizations as CEO of the Alliance for Rights and Recovery, asked lawmakers to reject Hochul’s efforts to expand involuntary hospitalization and the assisted outpatient treatment program.
“Fixing our community systems rather than forcing hospitalizations on people must be our priority,” he said in written testimony to the Legislature.
Rosenthal said lawmakers should instead direct the Office of Mental Health to convene incident review panels after any violent incident involving someone with a serious mental illness, as authorized by a 2014 state law. Panel members would review the circumstances of each incident to identify problems or gaps in the mental health care system, then make recommendations to address them.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Sullivan said her office has not yet used that authority.
===========
Lawmakers, Advocates Spar over Gov. Hochul’s Proposal to Expand Involuntary Commitment Criteria
By Eliza Fawcett | Healthbeat New York | February 6, 2025
This legislative session, the debate over how to address New York’s mental health crisis has found a new center of gravity: Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposal to expand the state’s criteria for involuntary psychiatric commitment.
…But Hochul’s involuntary commitment proposal has garnered pushback from some mental health advocates, legal experts, and state lawmakers, who question whether the expanded criteria would criminalize homelessness, whether it would be effective in helping those with severe mental health issues and social vulnerabilities, and whether adequate community-based services exist to support individuals upon discharge.
…Sen. Samra Brouk, a Rochester Democrat and chair of the Senate Committee on Mental Health, pressed Dr. Ann Marie T. Sullivan, commissioner of the state Office of Mental Health, on whether the expanded criteria could be interpreted to mean that anyone who is unhoused could be hospitalized against their will.
“How do you think we avoid this from being a sweeping change, so that we are essentially saying, homelessness now equals: You could be involuntarily committed?” Brouk asked.
In response, Sullivan stressed that homelessness would not equate to involuntary commitment, and that the expanded eligibility would apply to a “very small, select group of individuals who are at very substantial risk to physical harm because they are unable to take care of their daily needs.”
Other lawmakers, and some legal and mental health advocates who testified, questioned whether New York’s mental health care system would be able to adequately care for those involuntarily committed under expanded criteria, including after discharge.
Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, a Brooklyn Democrat and chair of the Assembly Committee on Mental Health, asked Sullivan whether hospitals had the capacity to accept additional patients who are involuntarily admitted.
Sullivan testified that the statewide occupancy rate for adult psychiatric services stands at about 80%, adding, “there’s room within the community-based hospital system for the small increase in individuals.”
“What I see is the problem is, once they get into a hospital, whether voluntary or involuntary, they’re not getting the care they need, and then they’re being released,” said Sen. Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat and chair of the Finance Committee, who noted that her district includes transit hubs like Penn Station and Grand Central, where unhoused people tend to congregate.
Sullivan pointed to Hochul’s efforts to expand mental health services beyond hospital systems, and noted that under the involuntary commitment proposal, hospitals would have to communicate with an individual’s provider and coordinate a discharge plan.
“We’re going to make sure the hospitals work with us, with the community-based providers, to have really comprehensive discharge plans,” Sullivan told lawmakers.
Some advocates who testified during the hearing asserted that Hochul’s proposal would further stigmatize and criminalize those with severe mental health issues and would not ultimately help them achieve lasting treatment.
Ruth Lowenkron, director of disability justice at the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, stressed that “forced treatment is not treatment” and urged lawmakers to focus instead on voluntary, community-based programs that have success in treating those with severe mental health issues.
“Don’t go to coercion. It really is not going to get it done,” Harvey Rosenthal, CEO of the Alliance for Rights and Recovery, a mental health advocacy organization, urged lawmakers. “I know the public is afraid, but stand tall with us, please.”
=========
Hochul Proposes Expanding Involuntary Commitment
BY Johan Sheridan | NextStart | January 6,2025
Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed changing the legal criteria for involuntary commitment on January 3. By so doing, she hopes to address concerns about public safety in the subway.
Hochul floated expanding involuntary commitment laws so that more people could be hospitalized against their will when they endanger themselves or others. The change would address a gap in care, according to the governor, ensuring that people receive treatment before a crisis.
….Involuntary commitment is a legal process that hospitalizes or treats someone with a mental illness against their will. This process aims to help people who cannot or will not seek care, and usually involves an evaluation from a mental health professional or a court. The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) has called it “a serious deprivation of liberty that can be justified only in the narrow circumstance where there is mental illness and an imminent physical danger to the person to be committed or to others, evidenced by observed behavior, and where there is no less restrictive alternative.”
The governor acknowledged lack of support for New Yorkers with mental illnesses. She linked violent crime to untreated mental health issues, especially among the homeless. “I took office after nearly half a century of disinvestment in mental health care and supportive housing, which directly contributed to the crisis we see on our streets and subways,” Hochul said.
But civil liberties advocates and mental health professionals criticized the governor’s proposal. For example, the NYCLU argued that focusing on involuntary commitment would overlook the lack of adequate care, housing, and services that causes crises.
Already, law enforcement agencies “routinely involuntarily commit individuals. What exactly happens to these New Yorkers after they are involuntarily committed is not clear and isn’t made publicly available,” warned NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman. “The current system already fails those subject to involuntary commitment. They are bounced from one under-resourced facility after another before returning to the street.”
And Glenn Liebman, Executive Director of the Mental Health Association in New York State, argued that a real solution would require improving community-based mental health services and hiring more staff in the mental health field. “We should be focused on systemic issues around a vastly underpaid workforce, community services, appropriate discharges, and creating a responsive incident management review team to identify where the system failed and what we can do better in the future,” he said.
Expanding involuntary commitment would continue a cycle of inadequate care and recidivism, they said, urging the state to invest in voluntary programs that have already proven effective. But the debate was already ongoing in New York before Hochul recommended the change.
Introduced by State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember-elect Micah Lasher in November, the H.E.L.P. Act (S9954) would empower more mental health professionals—like psychiatric nurse practitioners and clinical social workers—to evaluate patients for involuntary hospitalization. The legislators said that it would streamline the process for getting people the care they need.
But the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest opposed expanding involuntary commitment back in December, specifically outlining their opposition to the H.E.L.P. Act. Forced treatment often fails, they said, and the state should focus on improving voluntary services and eliminate police as first Hochul’s plan to expand involuntary commitment faces pushback
—–
Hochul’s Plan to Expand Involuntary Commitment Faces Pushback
Finger Lakes Times1.com | February 6, 2025
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposal to ease criteria for involuntary commitment of those with severe mental illness is sparking debate. State officials say available psychiatric beds can handle the potential increase of up to 1,000 patients. The plan aims to streamline the recommitment process for patients whose court-ordered treatment has expired after a symptom relapse. Lawmakers and advocates express concerns about potential misuse, particularly for marginalized groups. Senate Mental Health Committee Chair Samra Brouk urged waiting for results from a $1 million state study on involuntary commitment. Critics stress the need for long-term housing and mental health support instead of short-term institutionalization.
Hochul’s budget includes over $18 million to expand court-ordered treatment and increase mental health services staffing.
——–
Involuntary Commitments Start far more often in NYC’s Homes than Public Spaces, Data Shows
By Caroline Lewis | Gothamist | February 3, 2025
Nearly 7,800 New Yorkers were taken to hospitals against their will for psychiatric assessments in 2024, although the majority were released without being admitted, according to a new report from the Mayor’s Office of Community Mental Health. These trips were much more likely to originate in people’s homes than in public places.
There were 7,721 involuntary hospital trips in 2024, according to the report. The overwhelming majority, 7,060, were initiated by the NYPD, often after being dispatched to respond to 911 calls. Another 661 were initiated by psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers or other clinicians.
About half of these trips originated in private dwellings, while about 1 in 5 came from public spaces or public transportation. Manhattan was the borough with the most involuntary hospital transports, while Staten Island had the least.
Black New Yorkers made up a disproportionate share of those taken to the hospital involuntarily, the data shows. About 23% of the city’s population is Black, yet 54% of involuntary hospital trips last year were for Black patients. About a third of those taken to the hospital involuntarily were white. Race was not reported for all transports.
Once patients got to hospitals for psychiatric assessments, not all were admitted. Of those who arrived at public hospitals after clinician-initiated involuntary transports, 42% were admitted for psychiatric or medical care. The city doesn’t have similar data from private hospitals.