Even after a reportedly mentally ill ex-prisoner Ismaaiyl Brinkley shot New York City Police Department officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, Governor Andrew Cuomo is refusing to sign a bill, S. 7818, that’s on his desk and could do something about the risks presented by mentally ill ex-cons.
The Prisoners Mental Health Discharge Planning Bill would require prison officials to make sure prisoners with mental illness who are being released are given:
‐ and enough medications to last until the appointment.
It also adds parole officials to the list of people who can refer someone with a mental illness to a hospital for evaluation.
Media reports say the killer was reported by his mom to be mentally ill, reported himself to have been previously institutionalized, and had been previously incarcerated. While he doesn’t seem to have been a New York prison, this bill would help prevent violence by similarly situated people who do leave a New York prison.
Cuomo should sign it today. The bill, sponsored by state senator Catharine Young and assemblyman Danny O’Donnell, has been endorsed by Mental Illness Policy Org, the New York State Association of Chiefs of Police, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness of NYS.
There are other policy failures, too: Mayor de Blasio’s task force on New York City’s jail at Rikers Island failed to recommend an expansion of Kendra’s Law, a state policy that could keep mentally ill ex-prisoners in mandated and monitored community treatment and has reduced homelessness, arrests, violence, and incarceration.
While officials in Albany and NYC are ignoring the most seriously ill, there is some good news: Representative Tim Murphy, a Pennsylvania Republican, has still been pushing the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, which addresses some of the mental-illness issues related to the police shootings.
For science-based info on the intersection of serious mental illness and violence, see more from my organization, Mental Illness Policy Org.