Earlier this year, Michelle Go was shoved onto the subway tracks and killed by an oncoming train. It was yet another seemingly random attack underground – the kind of attack that has New Yorkers on alert.

What You Need To Know

  • Both Mayor Adams and Gov. Hochul are calling for a strengthening of laws governing mental illness and treatment

  • The effort comes after the violent subway death of Michelle Go, who was pushed onto the tracks in January

  • Advocates say the rush to make changes may infringe on people’s rights

In response to the rising violence and rising fears, both Mayor Eric Adams and the Gov. Kathy Hochul are pushing for changes that would allow mentally unhealthy people to be forced into treatment.

“Kendra’s law. Let’s start using it,” said Mayor Adams last month. “Let’s start looking at, how do we modify it to do a better job to those who are a danger to themselves and others.”

Kendra’s law was passed by the state legislature after a woman named Kendra Webdale was pushed onto the subway tracks and killed in 1999.

The law allows the state to impose outpatient psychiatric treatment for those determined to be mentally unfit. But advocates for the mentally ill are concerned there may be a rush to judgment.

“We are looking at it through the wrong lens,” said Harvey Rosenthal of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services. “The issue is not to punish people and to blame them for the failure of the system. It’s to fix the system. And we like to say it’s to fix the services, not force them.”

The laws governing involuntary commitment in New York State are very rigid. The rights of the individual are protected, unless a person has demonstrated a threat to themselves or others.

Gov. Hochul has proposed strengthening Kendra’s law to give the state more leeway in forcing people into treatment.

“We need to talk about what’s involved in removal and involuntary commitment for the highest need individuals, individuals who have truly demonstrated that they are not taking care of themselves” Hochul said in February.

But critics say there is a misconception about mental illness and violence.

“Four percent of violence is caused by people with mental illness,” Rosenthal said. “People with mental illness are 11 times as likely to be victims of violence, five times more likely to be murdered. But when you get this human cry it becomes, ‘The mentally ill are dangerous and violent. It’s frightening. And we have to force them into treatment,’ which, frankly, doesn’t work because people don’t stay with it.”

Right now, there is no legislation being proposed that strengthens Kendra’s law specifically. The governor is going to include it as part of the budget, but it’s unclear if lawmakers support her efforts.