NYC Jail Reform Panel Calls for 1500 New Hospital Beds for Mentally Ill Detainees

The New York City Lippmann Commission on jail reform is calling on the city to create 1,500 secure beds for mentally ill detainees in hospitals outside the jails, Graham Rayman reports for the Daily News. There are currently only 300 such beds in the city jails, despite that some 1,200 of the roughly 6,200 total detainees have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness, according to the Independent Commission on Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform. The number of people diagnosed with serious mental illness has increased by 45 percent since January 2022 and half of the Rikers population has some kind of mental illness. The additional 1,100 new beds proposed by the commission would also include people with substance abuse issues. Commission policy director Zachary Katznelson said the proposal would be funded by bonds which would be repaid over 30 years, reducing the immediate cost to the city.