ALBANY – Senator Catharine Young (R,C,I- Olean) is again calling for strengthening Kendra’s Law, a law that was put in place to help people with mental illness receive outpatient treatment, after a deranged man killed a Queens resident by pushing him in front of an oncoming subway near Times Square. Ki Suk Han, 58, died on Monday.
Senator Young said that “based on reports from the media and witnesses, it appears that the attacker had been yelling and cursing at passersby on the subway platform. She added that the state need to expand and strengthen the laws and procedures that determine how and when people receive treatment for mental illness.
In an eerily similar incident in 1999, Kendra Webdale, a 32-year-old woman, was pushed in front of a subway train by a man with untreated schizophrenia who was roaming New York City streets. “Kendra’s Law” was enacted in response to this tragedy. It put in place “Assisted Outpatient Treatment” (AOT) in New York, which allows courts to order severely mentally ill outpatients to comply with treatment, while directing counties to provide such treatment and monitor compliance.
However, deficiencies in the current law have been identified. Senator Young has been strongly advocating for eliminating those loopholes.
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