Further, we support improving our criminal legal system and the movement towards decarceration, to help ensure the best outcomes for people living with a mental illness who enter or exit the system. Some ways NAMI-NYC supports decriminalizing mental illness include:
Effective Implementation of a 988 Number
The new nationwide 3-digit number, 988, is a line to call or text for mental health crisis and suicide prevention services. We support 988, because it drastically reduces the likelihood of the police potentially responding when someone needs the support of a mental health professional and/or connection to resources. Now, we must ensure that the implementation of 988 actually pairs mental health crisis calls to appropriate peer-led mobile crisis response teams.
There are still some flaws we see with 988, including the use of phone area codes to connect callers to their dispatchers. Many people live in or are visiting New York City but do not have a NYC-based phone number. We are advocating to switch to geolocation services so individuals, loved ones, and practitioners can be directly connected to dispatchers who can connect them with support in the area they are calling from. Additionally, many people are unaware of 988 and when and how it may be used. More needs to be done with public awareness campaigns so information on 988 is accessible to as many people as possible.
#CAHOOTSinNYC (Peer-led, Non-Police Crisis Response)
As a Steering Committee Member of the Correct Crisis Intervention Today-NYC (CCIT-NYC) coalition, NAMI-NYC strives to transform how New York City responds to the 200,000+ mental health crises calls that the NYPD responds to. We do this by advocating for the implementation of a non-police, peer-led response model to mental health crisis calls in NYC. Since 2015, 19 people have been murdered after the police responded to mental health crisis calls in our city — most of those individuals identified as Black or brown.
While NYC’s pilot program, B-HEARD, running in Northern Manhattan, the South Bronx, and parts of Brooklyn, aims to provide an alternative to police response to mental health crisis, NAMI-NYC believes that the current model must shift toward a peer-led response (including 500 hours of training for each peer) that also utilizes independent medical responders. Additionally, the response model should connect to NYC Well and/or 988 call lines and more work in tandem with community care and respite centers. We would like to see expansion to all boroughs and to increase operation to 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
The ideal crisis model would mirror the community-based, peer-led mobile CAHOOTS teams that have proven successful in responding to mental health crises calls in Eugene, Oregon for over 30 years. We know from evidence, as well as through a series of conversations with different impacted community members across NYC, that it is past due for our city government to implement a similar CAHOOTS approach to crisis response in NYC, consisting of 1 trained peer crisis worker and 1 independent medic, that could save countless lives. NAMI-NYC specifically advocates for city funding allocated for non-police response to go toward instituting the CCIT-NYC model, which is the only model to center peers at its core and to have known positive outcomes.
Close Rikers
One of the largest providers of psychiatric care in the nation should not be a jail. Conditions on Rikers have deprived New Yorkers of their human rights and even their lives, including the loss of Elijah Muhammad in July 2022 and Michael Nieves in August 2022. The systems in place on Rikers Island disregard inmates’ right to medical and mental health care. Reform is simply not enough and we endorse the Campaign to Close Rikers.
Mental Health Courts
As part of the Treatment Not Jails coalition, we support the use of mental health courts as an off-ramp from the criminal legal system. We must properly treat mental illnesses underlying some criminal offenses, rather than further deteriorating an individual’s mental health in jail or prison.
The goal of mental health courts is to reduce the incarceration and recidivism of individuals with mental health conditions who committed low-level non-violent offenses by linking them to local behavioral health science providers to develop individualized treatment plans. As part of the Treatment Not Jails coalition, NAMI-NYC supports the passing of the Treatment Not Jails Act (S.2881/A.6603), which would improve the use of these courts, especially those that accept defendants with Axis I diagnoses, PTSD, and substance use disorders. Our goal is to invest in community resources so that people living with mental health conditions do not end up arrested. We’re also committed to promoting awareness about mental health courts as an alternative to typical criminal proceedings.
Enforcement of the H.A.L.T. Act
H.A.L.T. (Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act) reformed the use of long-term isolation as punishment for vulnerable population members, such as individuals living with mental illnesses. While true victory would have been to eradicate solitary confinement in all forms since research shows its long-term negative effects on mental health, NAMI-NYC still commends the State for taking a step in the right direction. It is our advocacy goal to make sure that all prisons located within or near NYC actively adhere to the H.A.L.T.