The killing of four homeless men in Chinatown over the weekend has sparked a discussion about the two-decades old Kendra’s Law, which allows courts to order treatment for the mentally ill.
It was passed in 1999, after Kendra Webdale was pushed in front of a subway train. The culprit, Andrew Goldstein, was diagnosed with schizophrenia and wasn’t taking medication. The law allowed for people like him to be taken to court and ordered to get treatment.
DJ Jaffe, executive director of Mental Illness Policy Org., said Randy Santos, the man accused in last weekend's killings, would probably have been a good candidate for Kendra’s Law.
“It would likely have been an effective program for this individual because he suffered from homelessness, arrest and incarceration,” he said.
But the criteria that make someone eligible for involuntary treatment are strict, such as being hospitalized at least twice within the last three years for a mental illness after rejecting treatment.
“This individual had a troubled past, but not something that would have activated the use of Kendra’s Law,” Mayor de Blasio said this week on NY1.
The city placed Santos in a shelter for men with mental illness this year, but it remains unclear if he was ever hospitalized. Harvey Rosenthal, executive director of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services, said there's good reason the criteria are so strict.
“I would just urge that when there are these tragedies we be very thoughtful … and not do the knee-jerk reaction … that the answer is a forced treatment order with a judge," he said.
Currently, 1,600 people in the city are required to receive treatment under Kendra’s Law and 15 percent of them are homeless.