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State Legislators Push 'Treatment Not Jails Act' to Avoid Incarceration for Many with Mental Illness


Treatment could be available for more defendants (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


State legislation to expand alternatives to incarceration for people with mental illness is gaining momentum in Albany amid debates over how criminal justice, public safety, and mental health care policy interact.

The Treatment Not Jails Act would require judicial diversion courts in every county of the state and expand the list of special circumstances that qualify a defendant to have their case heard outside a conventional criminal courtroom. Its sponsors say the program would offer a critical alternative to the traditional system of crime and punishment for people with serious mental health care needs, intellectual disabilities, and a host of other clinically defined "functional impairments." 

The legislation has seen growing support in the State Legislature, where its sponsors are pushing for it to be included in their chambers’ one-house budget proposals due out the week of March 13. Governor Kathy Hochul has not taken a position on the bill as budget negotiations enter the final stages — a state budget is due by the April 1 start of the new fiscal year.

The debate over treatment courts comes at a time when jails and prisons, which house a disproportionate number of people with mental health needs, are seeing record violence and death.

Supporters argue the alternative court settings – which offer court-ordered treatment and supervision in lieu of incarceration – provide a safer and more constructive path to rehabilitation than jails. Opponents say the legislation is another progressive measure, like recent discovery law reforms, that could sap resources and hurt public safety. 

"On the face of it all, it's easy to go back to that knee-jerk reaction of, 'Oh, it sounds like this is a get-out-of-jail-free card.' And it's not," said State Senator Jessica Ramos, a Queens Democrat and the bill's lead Senate sponsor, in an interview with Gotham Gazette. "It is actually making sure that folks are being seen by the court with the medical lens that their mental illness requires."

The bill has gained co-sponsors each legislative session since it was first introduced in 2020. It now has the official support of roughly a third of each legislative chamber, including both Democrats and at least one Republican in each house.

Spokespeople for Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, both Democrats, did not return requests for comment on the legislation or the likelihood of it being included in one-house budget bills.

Court-mandated mental health treatment and involuntary psychiatric commitment have become a growing interest of city and state leaders, including Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams, two Democrats who have centered related policies in their public safety agendas.

Adams has put in motion an increase in involuntary removals of homeless New Yorkers with untreated severe mental illness from the streets and subways.

"We can no longer deny the reality that untreated psychosis can be a cruel and all-consuming condition that often requires involuntary intervention, supervised medical treatment and long-term care," he said when announcing the new policy in November.

He also advocated for the successful state-level expansion of Kendra's Law last year, which allows court-order treatment in civil cases where a person is deemed a danger to themselves or others.

A spokesperson for Adams said the Treatment Not Jails Act was under review.

"Mental health courts have an important role to play in our criminal justice system, strengthening public safety and ensuring that people get the treatment and support they need to maintain stability," the spokesperson wrote by email.

Each of the five boroughs currently has a mental health treatment court for a narrower population than is included in the Treatment Not Jails Act.

A spokesperson for Hochul said she would look at the legislation if it passed both houses.

New York has 233 special treatment courts for veterans, people with substance abuse disorder, families with a history of domestic violence, and people with mental health care needs, among others. The courts, which exist on an ad hoc basis throughout the state, require mandated treatment plans that could include counseling and medication along with other services like housing (the Office of Court Administration could not provide a breakdown of the courts' distribution across the state). Mental health courts often require a guilty plea before a defendant may become eligible for diversion from potential incarceration, according to the bill's sponsors.

The Treatment Not Jails Act would require each county to open up a treatment court and make any individual accused of a felony or misdemeanor eligible for consideration. The bill would require a clinical evaluation by a mental health professional to determine eligibility before a plea is made. The evaluation is shared with the defendant and their lawyer who may agree to share it with prosecutors and the court. To be diverted, the prosecution and defense must then come to an agreement based on the evaluation; otherwise either party may seek a hearing before a judge.

Prosecutors reached for comment said they support the spirit of expanding access to mental health treatment courts but indicated they were unsatisfied with the current language of the bill. 

"The Office supports the goals of the bill and will be meeting with advocates and legislators in the coming weeks to discuss specific aspects of its language," wrote Emily Tuttle, a spokesperson and senior advisor to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, in an email to Gotham Gazette. Shortly after taking office, Bragg opened a new division focused on special courts and alternatives to incarceration. His office declined to provide specifics about its concerns with the current bill language.

“We are deeply committed to increasing access to mental health treatment, and Brooklyn’s nationally recognized Mental Health Court has continually expanded the cases it accepts," reads a statement from Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez's office in response to a Gotham Gazette inquiry. "We are working with the bill’s sponsors to prevent the serious unintended consequences that would arise if the legislation is enacted in its current form.”

The office did not provide details on what those unintended consequences could be.

An official familiar with treatment courts who requested not to be named because they were not authorized to speak on the record warned that the courts do not have the resources to conduct hearings and evaluations for the wider population that would become eligible for diversion under the bill. The official said the bill could result in unmanageable delays that might reduce the number of people who end up receiving mental health treatment.

A spokesperson for Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said the office was analyzing the latest version of the legislation.

Public defenders have organized in support of the Treatment Not Jails Act. “Too often, our incarcerated clients with mental health and substance abuse issues languish in jail, denied treatment and cycled through the revolving door of Rikers Island,” said Alice Fontier, managing director at the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, in a recent statement.

Prosecutors say they are still struggling to meet the demands of 2019 changes made to the state's discovery laws that tightened deadlines to turn over evidence to defense attorneys. Hochul has proposed more funding for that purpose in her executive budget.

"District Attorney’s offices spent a great deal of time establishing new mechanisms for discovery storage and exchange. Funding continues to be needed for additional staff and particularized staff training, new and updated technology, and expanded storage capabilities," the District Attorneys Association of the State of New York testified at a recent legislative budget hearing.

The state's 95 existing Adult Drug Treatment Courts will cost taxpayers $16 million in the next fiscal year, $15.2 million of which will pay for non-judicial court personnel with the remainder going towards training and drug testing, according to court spokesperson Lucian Chalfen.

The bill's sponsors estimate the Treatment Not Jails Act will cost the state roughly $15 million annually and argue it will ultimately save the state much more money by avoiding the cost of imprisonment. The Office of Court Administration, which runs the state court system, does not yet have a position on the bill, Chalfen said.

While Hochul has not opined on the legislation, her inclusion of an additional $15.7 million for alternatives to incarceration in her executive budget this year has given lawmakers hope.

"That is exactly the number for Treatment Not Jails," said Assemblymember Phara Souffrant Forrest, the Assembly's prime sponsor of the Treatment Not Jails Act, in an interview with Gotham Gazette. "That was very positive for us." The Assemblymember’s office will be meeting with the governor's team next week to discuss getting the bill into the final budget, she said.

Last year, Hochul and the Legislature allocated $15.7 million for alternatives to incarceration, ultimately awarding $17.1 million through the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), according to Janine Kava, a spokesperson for the governor's office and DCJS. The funding went toward pretrial release programs, employment-based services, and jail based "cognitive behavioral intervention," aimed at reducing recidivism upon release. Another $400,000 of that original allocation went to the state correction department, Kava said. In her executive budget for the fiscal year that begins April 1 of this year, Hochul doubled alternatives to incarceration spending to $31.4 million.

The governor and legislative leaders will negotiate the budget over the coming weeks, discussions that will intensify after the two houses pass their individual budget resolutions in the near future.

The newly-funded programs are yet to be determined, "but DCJS will build on what has worked well and ensure that programs are evidence-based and proven to work," Kava wrote in an email. "Governor Hochul will review the legislation if it passes both houses," she said of the Treatment Not Jails Act.

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by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

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NYCHA Rent Arrears Crisis Shifts Budget Focus from Capital Needs to Operating Assistance


Governor Hochul makes a NYCHA announcement (photo: Governor's Office)


After decades of neglect and underinvestment at every level of government, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) continues to struggle to fund its annual operating expenses and massive infrastructure repair needs.

While the city and state have made some recent investments in the public housing authority’s capital infrastructure needs, the pandemic blew a hole in its operating budget as rent revenue plummeted and its roughly 500,000 residents were last in line for the state’s rental assistance program. To the tune of $454 million, the major rent arrears issue that developed has created annual deficits forcing NYCHA to dip into reserves and putting it in particularly precarious financial position.

Now, as the annual state and city budget processes unfold, NYCHA residents, housing advocates, and like-minded legislators are pushing for a new $2 billion eviction prevention fund for residents of public housing and affordable housing development with city and state regulatory agreements.

This year presents a marked shift away from a focus on the authority’s capital needs given recent movement on that front and the emergency that has grown around unpaid rent. Notably, after the current state budget included a number of important NYCHA-related measures, Governor Kathy Hochul’s executive budget for next fiscal year, which begins April 1, does not include new operational or capital support for NYCHA.

“Governor Hochul's Executive Budget makes transformative investments to make New York more affordable, more livable and safer, and she looks forward to working with the legislature on a final budget that meets the needs of all New Yorkers,” said a spokesperson for the governor, in a statement in response to the governor’s lack of NYCHA-related proposals in her budget and policy agenda.

Focus on Capital Repairs
As of 2020, NYCHA had a roughly $40 billion, five-year capital need for repairs, maintenance, and upgrades, with those costs expected to rise by $1 billion annually. That year, NYCHA released “A Blueprint for Change” that was meant to put the authority on a path toward reaching a significant percentage of its capital needs, stabilize its overall finances, and reform its management after years of crises. 

The transformation plan has since been put into motion and the city has made major strides to fund infrastructure improvements at NYCHA’s 175,000 apartments. Repairs at about 62,000 apartments are being achieved under the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) program, which places developments under private management and makes them eligible for federal funds through the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program.

The remaining roughly 110,000 units required $18 billion in repairs – at the time that the blueprint was published, NYCHA had about $3.3 billion in capital towards that goal. The agency also estimated that another $7 billion would be needed for improvements to grounds, community centers, and more.  

Mayor Eric Adams won significant victories in last year’s state budget to fund NYCHA’s infrastructure. Governor Kathy Hochul launched a five-year housing plan that included $350 million in capital funding for NYCHA. That budget also secured another $300 million for elevator replacements at 20 NYCHA developments through an agreement with the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York – the first planning phase of that funding launched in January this year.  

The governor and State Legislature also approved the creation of the new Public Housing Preservation Trust, which will allow NYCHA to potentially raise billions for repairs and maintenance. 

The Trust is a separate public entity, which will lease developments from NYCHA on a long-term basis. The trust will be able to receive Tenant Protection Vouchers (TPVs) from the federal government, and leverage those to issue bonds and raise billions more. The state has so far only authorized NYCHA to turn over 25,000 apartments to the trust, which will be able to raise up to an estimated $3.4 billion as a result. The trust could raise up to $15 billion if all 110,000 apartments are brought under its management, though that would necessitate an expansion of the threshold in the state law as well as, per the current trust law, the approval of the residents of the individual developments according to voting standards developed by legislators and NYCHA.

There are several risks to the untested trust model. As the Independent Budget Office noted in a recent report, the city would need almost $500 million in Tenant Protection Vouchers from the federal government for 25,000 units, and up to $2.2 billion for 110,000 units – the federal omnibus spending bill only allocates about $337 million for TPVs across the country. Even under Democratic control of the White House and both Houses of Congress throughout 2021 and 2022, NYCHA did not receive a major capital allocation, though some members of New York’s congressional delegation continue to try to make it a priority.

The New York City Council is also considering a non-binding resolution, sponsored by Council Member Alexa Avilés, chair of the Council’s public housing committee, calling on the state to fund half of a roughly $3 billion annual capital funding increase for NYCHA. 

[Read: Preservation Trust and Beyond: Report Assesses NYCHA's Progress and Challenges in Executing 'Blueprint for Change'

Rent Arrears, Operating Budget In Focus
Though major questions remain about capital funding, advocates say the state and city urgently need to turn their attention to NYCHA’s operating budget, which was thrown into disarray by the pandemic. 

NYCHA’s fiscal year follows the calendar year, unlike the state fiscal year, which begins April 1, and the city fiscal year, which starts July 1. At a December 22 meeting, the NYCHA board released its latest financial plan for 2023-2027, painting a dire financial picture.  

NYCHA’s operating budget for 2023 is expected to be about $4.4 billion, the same as 2022, but with a $35 million deficit despite dipping into reserves to the tune of $65 million. It will also leave the authority’s reserves severely depleted. The agency will have only about $145 million left at the end of 2023, less than the $254 million that would constitute just one month of reserves – HUD recommends that public authorities like NYCHA should have at least three to four months of reserve funds. NYCHA currently has about $211 million in reserve after using $100 million to cover 2022 costs.

According to the document, the agency’s rent arrears reached $454 million from 73,028 households as of November 30, 2022, up from $125 million in 2019 prior to the pandemic. The authority is only collecting about 65% of rent it is owed, down from more than 90% annually before the pandemic.

The Community Service Society, an anti-poverty group with a focus on public housing, estimated in a recent report that by June 2023, more than 50,000 public housing households across the state will owe about $589.4 million in rental arrears. 

“The problems facing NYCHA can seem overwhelming, but helping tenants pay rent arrears is a right-sized, money-saving step that will have a direct, immediate impact,” wrote Courtney Bryan, executive director of the Center for Justice Innovation, in a February 28 op-ed at Gotham Gazette. CJI provides housing assistance to low-income New Yorkers through its Red Hook Community Justice Center. “Not only will it forestall a crisis for thousands of families, but it will give NYCHA an essential infusion to prevent its problems from getting worse. If federal money isn’t coming, that means devoting city and state dollars to solving it. The health, safety, and well-being of hundreds of thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers is at stake.”

NYCHA has submitted applications to the state’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), created in response to the pandemic and using federal funds, for 31,330 households, worth about $120 million. When ERAP was created, NYCHA tenants were placed low on the priority list, and none had received any ERAP funding as of December. 

“I do think the more immediate issues we face right now are arrears in both public and affordable housing,” said Rachel Fee, executive director of New York Housing Conference, a nonprofit advocacy organization. “I do think that’s something the Legislature and the governor are going to have to grapple with.” Besides NYCHA tenant arrears, NYHC released a policy brief on March 9 which showed that tenants in 31% of 49,121 affordable housing units with regulatory agreements have rent arrears totaling $145 million. 

“I think the last thing anybody wants to see is a massive wave of evictions, and we know that the only place these people will have left to go is going to be homeless shelters. That’s not an outcome that anybody wants,” she added. 

On Wednesday, March 8, State Senator Brian Kavanagh, chair of the Senate Housing Committee, and Assemblymember Grace Lee, member of the Assembly Housing Committee, rallied at the  State Capitol to call for $389 million in funding for the ERAP to cover rent for tenants of public housing and subsidized housing. The Senate and Assembly are expected to release their one-house budget resolutions next week in response to the governor's budget. 

The drop in NYCHA's rental revenue is also threatening NYCHA’s ability to abide by the terms of a 2019 agreement with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to implement repairs at NYCHA apartments over five years. The agreement, which also installed a federal monitor over the authority, stemmed from the settlement of a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Attorney for New York’s Southern District over living conditions in NYCHA developments. 

“NYCHA has worked diligently with our elected partners to make them aware of the Authority's capital and operating needs, as well as our current budget challenges due to significant rental arrears,” said a NYCHA spokesperson, in a statement. “We look forward to outlining our budget priorities for the fiscal year.” NYCHA leaders are expected to testify at a City Council budget hearing on March 13. 

Mayor Adams, who regularly touts last year's passage of the Preservation Trust as key to NYCHA's future, did not bring up new NYCHA needs during his February state budget testimony to the Legislature in Albany. The mayor's office did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

The New York State Association for Affordable Housing (NYSAFAH), a trade group, and Legal Aid Society have proposed a new $2 billion Tenant Fund for Affordable Housing (TFAH) to cover the cost of rent arrears for tenants in NYCHA and in affordable housing developments that have regulatory agreements with the city and state. Of the $2 billion fund, $500 million would be set aside for NYCHA alone.

Jolie Milstein, president and CEO of NYSAFAH, bemoaned the “unforeseen consequences” of ERAP and said that the rental arrears issue threatens to create an eviction crisis while jeopardizing affordable housing developments that desperately need rent revenue. “We helped inform the ERAP program, we never liked the way it actually turned out,” she said. “We have always argued that there should be a wholesale application to pay arrears” for tenants of affordable and public housing. 

The Tenant Fund for Affordable Housing would give both tenants and housing operators relief – it would cover all rental arrears for tenants with a disability, documented unemployment, or individuals who applied for ERAP and would have been eligible before it ran out of funds; it would cover two-thirds of the rent for other applicants; and it would allow landlords to independently apply for assistance.

“Our clients and all low-income New Yorkers who are facing eviction and were left out of the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) deserve protection from displacement," said Judith Goldiner, Attorney in Charge of the Civil Law Reform Unit at The Legal Aid Society, in a statement. “ERAP put the most vulnerable tenants last in line and left them at risk of eviction and homelessness. The Tenant Fund for Affordable Housing would solve this challenge by finally eliminating arrears in a way that makes sense for everyone."

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

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Note – This article has been updated. 

CUNY Union Rallies for New Contract Amid Push for Additional State Budget Investment


 

PSC CUNY contract rally (photo: @psccunygc)


City University of New York faculty, staff, and students marched outside CUNY Central headquarters in East Midtown early Monday morning, in a nearly 500 person-strong rally organized by the Professional Staff Congress – the union representing over 30,000 CUNY employees. The rally was scheduled for the eve of the expiration of PSC’s labor contract with CUNY, and union members are gearing up to negotiate an extensive list of demands for their first contract since before the covid pandemic.

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and PSC President James Davis were among the speakers at the rally, alongside other union members and student government representatives. They expressed urgency to negotiate a contract that commits to a wage increase above pandemic-era inflation, a greater focus on staff diversity and inclusion, tuition decreases, and pay parity for adjunct instructors.

“I believe in lower tuition and higher salaries,” said Levine, a first-term Democrat. “The way to attract and retain students is to make CUNY an outstanding institution with well-compensated staff and faculty.”

After significant wins by academic labor unions in the University of California system and the New School here in New York, PSC-CUNY is looking to improve the working conditions of its tens of thousands of members across the city. Representatives from all five boroughs were present at the rally, and many speakers pointed to CUNY’s role in providing education for essential roles such as healthcare workers and teachers throughout New York City.

In a survey sent out to members late last year by PSC-CUNY, 95% of respondents cited “Protecting the Quality of CUNY Education” as their greatest concern. PSC Vice President Andrea Ades Vásquez connected it to contract negotiations, saying, “A fair contract means better wages for ourselves, but it also means a quality education for our students.”

Alongside other speakers, Vásquez referenced the out-of-class hours faculty and adjunct professors work unpaid, as many take on the advising and support roles of staff positions that have not been filled due to budget cuts and understaffing.

“Without adequate funding to meet their rising costs, [government] agencies cannibalized their own operating budgets and cut staffing and services,” Davis told Gotham Gazette in a statement. “At CUNY that meant shortages of full-time faculty, advisors, and mental health counselors, further adjunctification of the teaching corps and inadequate maintenance.”

A few hours after the rally, Davis joined CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez and representatives of other educational entities who testified at the State Legislature’s joint budget hearing on higher education in Albany. In their testimony, both Davis and Rodríguez made note of the significant budgetary increases earmarked for higher education within Governor Kathy Hochul’s $227 billion Executive Budget plan.

Matos Rodríguez gave an optimistic report in his testimony, highlighting the successes of CUNY, the largest urban public university in the United States, educating roughly 220,000 students across its community colleges, senior colleges, and graduate center. He thanked Hochul for her budget proposal, which, among other investments, recommends $642.7 million in capital funding to cover much-needed building maintenance and infrastructure improvements at the senior colleges.

But Davis noted in his testimony that CUNY had requested $983 million for capital funding , much more than Hochul’s proposed allocation. “For any institution to have only 8% of its buildings in a state of good repair is a recipe for disaster,” Davis told legislators from the State Senate and Assembly, who will negotiate a final state budget with the governor. A new state budget is due by the April 1 start of next fiscal year.

Echoing comments he made earlier that morning at the PSC rally, Davis also noted Hochul’s proposed tuition increases, a proposition PSC vehemently opposes.

“CUNY needs help to stem enrollment declines,” Davis said. “We urge the Legislature to not only reject tuition increases, but strive for a New York where community colleges are free.”

While Hochul and legislators made major investments in CUNY in this year’s state budget, passed in April 2022, their commitments fell short of the “New Deal for CUNY” that PSC, legislators such as State Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assembly Member Karines Reyes, and many students had sought. But, they saw the gains of the current fiscal year as significant progress toward that agenda.

That push now coincides with the PSC contract negotiation. Some PSC members rallying outside CUNY headquarters on Monday were concerned about how their demands would be met. 

PSC Secretary Penny Lewis, an Associate Professor of Labor Studies at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, said that in previous contract negotiations, wage increases came from the CUNY budget, adding to the austerity the university operated under. “Under [Governor Andrew] Cuomo, every salary increase we won, [CUNY] had to pay for. They did not put more money into our system in order to pay for it,” Lewis said.

She added that a recent memo from Executive Vice Chancellor and CUNY COO Hector Batista announcing a hiring freeze and planned budget cuts was “outrageous” and sent the wrong message to the Hochul administration.

The February memo, sent to the presidents and deans of all CUNY colleges, further announced a savings target of $100 million on top of the previous $75 million target. Reaching this target “will require courage, creativity, perseverance, and discipline,” Batista wrote.

At Monday’s rally, a different set of words were chanted, with PSC members and their supporters calling for “raises,” “justice,” “community,” and “unity.”

As the crowd dispersed, Lewis said, “Right now, we have lower enrollment than we need. But in order to get that back, we need more investment, and that’s what CUNY management should be signaling.”

Davis also emphasized greater investment as means for CUNY to regain enrollment, which dropped roughly 10-15% during the pandemic but has rebounded somewhat this school year, and pointed to the need for budget gaps to be closed if Hochul is to stay true to her commitment to higher education.

“Governor Hochul has demonstrated that she values public higher education. Even this budget, which falls short of what CUNY needs, starts with an increase, not a cut,” Davis said via statement to Gotham Gazette, after the hearing. “We urge the governor to show respect for CUNY workers and continue her planned reinvestment in the university by returning to the principled practice of fully funding CUNY contracts.”

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by Talia Barrington, Gotham Gazette

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