Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday again placed blame on a recent fatal stabbing spree on a broken mental health system. 

“Even if he stood in jail longer, let's say he stood in jail for two years, that has nothing to do with he needed help," he said during his weekly question-and-answer session with reporters. “If he would’ve gotten out 90-days later and stabbed three people, it’s just as bad the system is broken.” 

Adams was bombarded with questions over the suspect in the case, Ramon Rivera, a 51-year-old homeless man. 

Rivera had been arrested eight times before the incident in addition to assaulting a corrections officer in May but was still released early in October.

Adams said the assault didn’t factor into the decision to release Rivera early due to existing rules. 

“There’s been lots of conversations around the good release time," he said. "Time people can take off their sentence, that is after being sentenced it's not being the detainee. The assault on the corrections officer happened when he was a detainee.” 

According to a timeline of Rivera’s interactions with city agencies, provided by City Hall, the assault in question happened in May while Rivera was at Bellevue Hospital in custody.

It wasn’t until August and September that he was sentenced for burglary and assault. As a result, his bad behavior didn’t factor into his early release determination. 

Adams says that the policy is being reviewed. 

“Can we change that to say for your entire time that we have you? Can we make that determination even when you're a detainee and after you are sentenced? And so I ordered my team to sit down with the law department to say, can we say for the entire time that we have you, and we won't be in violation of the current law that states, after your sentence?” he said.

Rivera has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder, according to officials. 

His case has brought renewed attention to how to help New Yorkers who are suffering from severe mental illness. 

Adams again on Tuesday floated the idea of possibly making one of the city’s planned borough-based jails a mental health facility. 

“We can't continue to incarcerate ourselves out of the mental health crisis. To have 51% of the inmates dealing with mental health issues, something is wrong. Something is wrong. So to build four more jails to just make sure the population is spread out, that's not solving the problem.," he said. 

It's unclear how or if Adams would be able to change one of the jails into a mental health facility. However, the mayor said Tuesday some lawmakers have already reached out with interest in the idea.