Requires each appropriate institution housing a defendant due to mental disease or defect to assign a critical time intervention care management team to the defendant and make a single point of access referral for the defendant prior to such defendant's discharge.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A2440A
SPONSOR: Simone TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the criminal procedure law, in relation to cases termi-
nated due to mental disease or defect
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
Ensures that non-felony defendants that are found unfit to proceed to
trial are connected with services and resources for their long-term
stability.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends Criminal Procedure Law Section 730.40(2) to mandate a
referral to the Single Point of Access (SPOA) for all non-felony defend-
ants to be assigned appropriate treatment services after they are found
unfit to proceed to trial due to mental disease or defect.
This referral must take place as part of the discharge planning for each
defendant and included in a written plan maintained by the facility.
Each facility must issue biannual de-identified reports of all discharge
planning, including SPOA referrals, to the commissioner of the Office of
Mental Health and to the Chief Administrative Judge of the Courts.
Section 2 establishes the effective date of the Act as 90 days after it
shall have become a law.
JUSTIFICATION:
Currently, all misdemeanor cases where the defendant is found unfit to
proceed to trial due to mental disease or defect are dismissed as a
function of law, and after as little as a few days up to several months
of inpatient care, these individuals are released directly into the
community without appropriately intensive, long-term post-release care,
programming, or services. Notably, recently observed trends suggest that
individuals who spend less time in post-dismissal care have a higher
rate of recidivism than individuals with extended stays.
As a result, individuals who have documented mental health concerns that
can impact their own safety and that of the general public fall through
the cracks in our system, and are left with access to few, if any, crit-
ical resources after they are discharged. By mandating a referral to
SPOA as part of their discharge plan, we increase the likelihood that
individuals who are significantly affected by mental health concerns are
connected with the resources that they need for long-term stability.
Every county in New York State has established a SPOA process to connect
referred individuals with the care management and services appropriate
to support them. The treatment and programming one can access through
SPOA includes, but is not limited to; Non-Medicaid Care Coordination
(NMCC), Assertive Community Treatment (ACT), and Intensive Mobile Treat-
ment (IMT). SPOA can also be helpful in assisting individuals with hous-
ing referrals.
In addition to a SPOA referral, Critical Time Intervention (CTI) care
management teams offer significant value as a bridge to care during the
transition from inpatient settings to community-based services. CTI
teams help foster sustained engagement by building trust with individ-
uals and supporting their participation in services accessed through
SPOA, such as NMCC, ACT, or IMT. These teams remain involved over an
extended period, promoting stability and helping individuals work toward
greater independence. CTI and similar models should be prioritized where
appropriate and expanded as resources allow.
This legislation does not needlessly keep these vulnerable individuals
in the criminal justice system, but rather ensures that each individ-
ual's mental health needs are carefully considered and addressed at the
time of their discharge and during their return to the community. It
also will help generate meaningful data on how consistently referrals
and follow-through are happening across hospitals and agencies to aid
future reforms to the State's discharge protocols
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
This is a new bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
2440--A
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 16, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. SIMONE, LASHER, SHIMSKY, CRUZ, GLICK, McDONOUGH,
REYES, EPSTEIN, GALLAHAN, LUNSFORD, K. BROWN, TAPIA, GONZALEZ-ROJAS,
DAVILA, O'PHARROW, BRAUNSTEIN, KELLES, BERGER -- read once and
referred to the Committee on Codes -- committee discharged, bill
amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said commit-
tee
AN ACT to amend the criminal procedure law, in relation to cases termi-
nated due to mental disease or defect
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 2 of section 730.40 of the criminal procedure
2 law, as amended by chapter 7 of the laws of 2013, is amended to read as
3 follows:
4 2. (a)(1) When a local criminal court has issued a final order of
5 observation, it must:
6 (A) order the institution in which the defendant is confined to make a
7 single point of access referral for the defendant with the appropriate
8 agency closest to the defendant's last known county of residence prior
9 to discharge; and
10 (B) dismiss the accusatory instrument filed in such court against the
11 defendant and such dismissal constitutes a bar to any further prose-
12 cution of the charge or charges contained in such accusatory instrument.
13 (2) Each appropriate institution shall maintain records compiling all
14 discharge planning and single point of access referrals completed pursu-
15 ant to subparagraph one of this paragraph and submit de-identified bian-
16 nual reports on such records to the commissioner and chief administra-
17 tive judge of the courts.
18 (b) When the defendant is in the custody of the commissioner pursuant
19 to a final order of observation, the commissioner or [his or her] such
20 commissioner's designee, which may include the director of an appropri-
21 ate institution, immediately upon the discharge of the defendant, must
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05187-05-5
A. 2440--A 2
1 certify to such court that [he or she] the commissioner or such commis-
2 sioner's designee has complied with the notice provisions set forth in
3 paragraph (a) of subdivision six of section 730.60 of this article and
4 the referral provisions set forth in paragraph (a) of this subdivision.
5 When the defendant is in the custody of the commissioner at the expira-
6 tion of the period prescribed in a temporary order of observation, the
7 proceedings in the local criminal court that issued such order shall
8 terminate for all purposes and the commissioner must promptly certify to
9 such court and to the appropriate district attorney that the defendant
10 was in [his or her] the commissioner's custody on such expiration date.
11 Upon receipt of such certification, the court must dismiss the felony
12 complaint filed against the defendant.
13 § 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
14 have become a law.
