Chair Cabán on outpatient competency restoration program

So the campaign to close Rikers, they requested $1.7 million to establish an outpatient competency restoration pilot for 50 to 75 people who might otherwise be waiting at Rikers for transfer to a state hospital.

accurate asks of us of of you guys and i know that we can just like access it in a in a place and talk to our our partners about it so i i might

So is DOHMH working with the State Office of Mental Health to develop an outpatient competency restoration program, and has the city committed any funding for a program like that?

I might suggest maybe rethinking that, especially if organizations haven't said that that's how they would.

Great.

I'm going to pass to Dr.

Petit for more on this.

Yeah, thank you for that question.

React to having the to being able to see the way they know they know the waitlist is there believe me they know they just want to know how how deep it is um because it helps them in their advocacy right like they want to be able to make

While we have not had conversations with OMA, certainly, composite restoration is a significant issue that needs to be addressed, you know, head on.

I've seen this across the country in terms of individuals that sometimes languish in prisons and jails, you know, waiting on composite restoration.

accurate asks of us of of you guys and i know that we can just like access it in a in a place and talk to our our partners about it so i i might

So, you know, even though we have not had those conversations, I'm more than eager to, you know, engage and have further deliberations around what or how do we deal with this issue.

I might suggest maybe rethinking that, especially if organizations haven't said that that's how they would.

I will say that I represent, I mean, this is just one example, but I saw it all the time as a public defender.

I represented an individual that was charged with a burg too because, you know, the accusation of stealing a piece of luggage from an apartment building lobby is considered a violent felony because it's in

React to having the to being able to see the way they know they know the waitlist is there believe me they know they just want to know how how deep it is um because it helps them in their advocacy right like they want to be able to make

accurate asks of us of of you guys and i know that we can just like access it in a in a place and talk to our our partners about it so i i might

a dwelling technically.

So it was faced.

upstate prison time, was found to be incompetent because it's a felony and not a misdemeanor.

I might, yeah, I might suggest maybe rethinking that, especially if organizations haven't said that that's how they would.

We, and they wouldn't make him an offer because of course his mental health issues meant that he had a long rap sheet.

And it was like several years before he was deemed competent to go to trial just to get an acquittal at trial.

React to having the to being able to see the way they know they know the waitlist is there believe me they know they just want to know how how deep it is um because it helps them in their advocacy right like they want to be able to make

And so like, just to put this into context about how, you know, important this is, people who haven't been found

accurate asks of us of of you guys and i know that we can just like access it in a in a place and talk to our our partners about it so i i might

who have been found not competent to stand trial, they're obviously most in need of mental health treatment.

That's just one example of somebody languishing at Rikers awaiting a bed, for example.

I might, yeah, I might suggest maybe rethinking that, especially if organizations haven't said that that's how they would.

So what's DOHMH doing to serve this population?

Specifically with competency restoration, is that?

Yeah.

So, pass it back to Dr.

Pichit here.

Yeah, I mean, and again, two months in, so I'm not 100% of everything that we do within the division, but certainly within our Bureau of Justice Impacted Populations, we have a number of initiatives.

We have a health justice network that sort of coordinates peer activities in individuals that are coming out of prisons.

I can certainly look into this a little bit more and get back to you on what in particular we're doing around competency restoration, but certainly an area that I am well aware of as being something that we probably should be focusing a little more attention on.

Thank you.

Yeah, we can talk about it.

I haven't bought more questions, but.

Okay, we're going to start with Councilmember Wong, followed by.

By wrestler.

Thank you, Chair.