New Report: At the Intersection of Crime and Mental Illness, a Challenge for NYC’s New Mayor

NEW YORK, NY – During the de Blasio era, policymakers gave sustained attention to the intersection of crime and mental illness. A spate of reforms, some targeting the mental health system, others targeting the criminal justice system, attempted to reduce mentally ill New Yorkers’ involvement in crime and keep them out of jail. But in the wake of several recent incidents, including a fatal subway pushing in January 2022, public concerns over disorder and violence linked to mental illness continue to run high.

In a new report for the Manhattan Institute, senior fellow Stephen Eide evaluates recent efforts to address the problem of mentally ill offenders. He highlights how future jail reductions, a necessity if the city remains committed to “Close Rikers,” and the borough-based jail plan, will require far more progress in reducing the rate of serious mental illness in the jails than was achieved under de Blasio. Eide recommends reforms for reducing the amount of mental illness-related crime and violence in New York.

Chief findings include:

• In absolute terms, the number of seriously mentally ill people in jail in NYC has declined in recent years, tracking the jail decline more generally. In relative terms, though, the rate of serious mental illness remains as high as ever (above 15 percent, compared with around 5 percent for the general adult population). This means that while mentally ill inmates have been affected by general reforms aimed at reducing the jail population overall, less benefit has been realized through the more targeted interventions designed for their specific benefit.
• Average length of stay in jail has been increasing for inmates with any mental disorder.
• Inmates with any mental disorder and who have been charged with a violent felony constitute a growing share of the city jail population.
• Concerns about public disorder remain persistent, as reflected in press coverage and 311 data. New York is host to over 13,000 seriously mentally ill homeless adults. That number rose throughout the de Blasio years.

In light of these realities, Eide makes the following recommendations:

• Protect the integrity of mental health courts. This will require avoiding sentencing reforms that make participation in mental health courts unattractive.
• Reduce the rate of substance abuse among criminal offenders via desistance mandates.
• Speak honestly and forthrightly about the problem of violent mentally Ill offenders.
• Cease the reduction of inpatient psychiatric beds and make increased use of outpatient civil commitment.

Click here to read the full report.