After stabbings, NYC Mayor Adams says time to ease involuntary hospitalizations for the mentally ill

NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams, who has said that Monday’s fatal stabbing spree was a failure of government, said Tuesday he wants to expand involuntary hospitalization policies to make it easier for cops and outreach workers to get mentally ill people off the streets.

Following a bloody stabbing spree that left three dead Monday, the mayor made a push for legislation that would broaden the grounds for involuntary removal at his weekly press briefing on Tuesday.

“We do need Albany to pass a supportive intervention act. It clearly clarifies the standards for holding a person for care in a hospital, because clarity allows people not to feel reluctant to make the decision,” the mayor said. “And that clarity is not there.”

The bill, the Supportive Intervention Act, was introduced in 2023 but never passed committee. It would broaden the grounds for involuntary hospitalization.

Adams also advocated for the bill after the death of Jordan Neely in May 2023. Daniel Penny, who put Neely in a chokehold, is currently on trial for manslaughter.

Suspect Ramon Rivera was charged with three counts of murder for the deaths of three victims on Tuesday. He was held without bail.

Rivera, 51, is a repeat offender who has been in and out of jail for decades in Florida, Ohio, and New York and arrested twice in New Jersey. He’s been in New York City for only around a year — but has been arrested multiple times and hospitalized at least twice, officials previously told the Daily News.

Speaking from City Hall, Adams acknowledged other issues like a psychiatric bed shortage contribute to the city’s mental health crisis. He said that he was willing to “confront” the issue by getting people care, “even if it means involuntary removals.”

“The system has been failing for a long time,” the mayor said. “Administration after administration, I can recall stories and reading about people with severe mental health illness harming themselves and harming others.”

The Adams administration rolled out the directive for NYPD offices and outreach teams to take in and hospitalize individuals appearing to be a danger to themselves or others in November 2022.

Since its inception, the policy has been very controversial among advocates and some elected officials.

Later on Tuesday, state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblyman-elect Micah Lasher, announced new proposed legislation called the H.E.L.P. Act, which would give nurses, psychologists and clinical social workers the authority to perform clinical evaluations of a person’s need for involuntary hospitalization.

“Yesterday’s stabbings were just the latest devastating example of the need to reform New York State’s mental hygiene law to address the continued fallout from the closure of thousands of mental health beds across the state over the last several decades, which has caused individuals struggling with mental illness to languish on the streets and in the subways,” Hoylman-Sigal said in a statement.

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