Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

Kendra's Law

Kendra's Law

  • What’s Behind the Increased Use of Kendra’s Law in New York City?

    Mayor Adams rides the subway (photo: Mayor's Office)


    When Mayor Eric Adams was on the campaign trail last year, he repeatedly called for city and state officials to step up the use of Kendra's Law – a state law that allows court-ordered outpatient mental health treatment for people deemed dangerous to themselves or others.

    "We must strengthen Kendra’s Law,”

    ...
  • After Push by Hochul and Adams, an Increase in Court-Ordered Mental Health Treatment

    Gov. Hochul and Mayor Adams make an announcement (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    According to state data, the number of people placed under court-ordered mental health treatment since April, when lawmakers expanded the court's power to make such determinations, has increased 60% from the same period a year before.

    The data, provided by the state Office of Court Administration (OCA) to Gotham Gazette after an inquiry, shows that during the four-month period from April through July, 462 people in New York were ordered by a judge to

    ...
  • Expansion of Kendra's Law, Funding for Psychiatric Beds Among State Budget Decisions on Mental Illness Policy

    Gov. Hochul speaks to health care providers (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)


    Embedded in the $220 billion state budget lawmakers adopted this past weekend is a controversial expansion of Kendra's Law, which allows judges to mandate mental health treatment, including inpatient commitment, to people with mental illness deemed a danger to themselves or others.

    The change to the state's mental hygiene law, one of a handful of contentious final proposals pushed by Governor Kathy Hochul,

    ...
  • State Aims to Reinstate Hundreds of Psychiatric Beds Shifted During Pandemic

    (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)

    Medical evaluation (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)


    New York State is looking to reinstate all of the roughly 400 beds in the state's inpatient psychiatric system that were converted to medical beds at the start of the pandemic two years ago. But there is a long road to restore them despite mounting pressure from elected officials, representatives of the state Office of Mental Health (OMH) told lawmakers at a joint state legislative budget hearing Monday.

    "Across the state there have been

    ...
  • After Subway Shoving, Officials Look to Expand State Laws on Mandatory Treatment for Mental Illness

    dem seek expand

    Subway outreach (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    In January 1999, Kendra Webdale, a 32-year-old writer, was pushed to her death into the path of an oncoming N train by a schizophrenic man. Webdale’s death prompted the passage of the eponymously named Kendra’s Law, which allows courts to order a person to receive supervised mental health treatment, also known as assisted outpatient treatment, failing which they can be temporarily committed to a hospital.

    Twenty-three years later, the killing of 40-year-old Michelle Go in eerily

    ...
  • Max Politics Podcast: Addressing the Crisis of Untreated Severe Mental Illness

    Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office

    Mental health first aid training (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    February 8, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: Addressing the Crisis of Untreated Severe Mental Illness

    Harvey Rosenthal, CEO of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services (NYAPRS), joined the show to discuss how New York City and State should address the crisis of untreated severe mental illness among New Yorkers.

    Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter ...

  • Help People with Mental Illness: Make Kendra’s Law Permanent

    dj kendra law

    (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office)


    As the state legislative session comes to a close, Governor Andrew Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, and Assembly Mental Health Committee chair Aileen Gunther have still not made New York’s most effective mental illness law permanent or closed loopholes in it. Their inaction is cruel to people suffering from mental illness and unsafe for the public.

    Kendra’s Law allows judges to order a subset of those with the most

    ...