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Q&A
State budget and funding for psychiatric beds for incarcerated individuals
1:16:26
·
86 sec
The discussion focuses on the state budget allocation for psychiatric beds, particularly for severely mentally ill individuals currently held at Rikers Island. Zachary Katznelson explains the critical need for more state hospital beds to properly care for these individuals.
- Governor Hochul's budget proposal includes funding for 100 additional psychiatric beds
- Highlight of the issue where nearly 900 severely mentally ill individuals were held at Rikers last year
- Emphasis on the need for state hospital beds rather than jail for these individuals
- Discussion of the negative impacts of keeping severely mentally ill people in jail, including issues like deadlocking
Zachary Katznelson
1:16:26
That's absolutely right.
1:16:27
I mean, for instance, governor Hochul has proposed in her budget funding for 100 additional psychiatric beds.
1:16:33
The beds
Jonathan Lippman
1:16:34
And they know that's not enough, but at least a hundred is in the It's
Zachary Katznelson
1:16:37
a down payment on what we need.
1:16:39
And just just very briefly, last last year, there were almost 900 people who were in Rikers at some point who were so severely mentally ill, they couldn't comprehend what was happening in court.
1:16:49
Those are people that should be in state hospitals.
1:16:51
They should not be in jail.
1:16:53
But there are not enough state hospital beds, and so they sit at Rikers for months and months and deteriorate.
1:16:59
It's led to deadlocking, which the council has been pushing the department around where people are locked in their cells because officers don't have the background, the training, the experience to grapple with people with such serious illness, don't know what to do, and are reacting poorly, very poorly.
1:17:15
And the result cannot continue.
1:17:17
The governor is starting to step up and putting funding for 100 beds.
1:17:20
We need a lot more, but it's a real start.
1:17:23
We need investment across the state and the city to make sure we do this better.
1:17:27
And again, it is pennies on the dollar relative to Rikers.
1:17:30
Right?
1:17:30
We're invested the return on investment that we get for Rikers every single day is atrocious and cannot be allowed to continue.
Sandy Nurse
1:17:39
I was gonna ask you about state, you know, any advocacy you all are doing with the state.
1:17:43
You've addressed that.
1:17:46
I guess I just want to give you all an opportunity to, if you want to close out with anything else that we haven't touched on today.