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ALBANY---The Court of Appeals has held that the procedure used by the state in involuntarily committing certain sex offenders after they had served their sentences and left the custody of the Department of Correction Services was illegal.
The case concerned a dozen convicted sex offenders that Gov. George Pataki held ordered in Manhattan Psychiatric Center and Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center as civilly committed patients under the Mental Hygiene Law.
In a unanimous ruling, the state's highest court reversed a lower court's ruling that allowed the 12 men to be held without hearings and ordered that their cases be returned to the Supreme Court for immediate hearings to determine if they pose a danger to the public. http://www.courts.state.ny.us/ctapps/decisions/nov06/140opn06.pdf
The convicted sex offenders were in the custody of DOCS and nearing the end of their prison sentences for various felony sex offenses when they were examined by two Office of Mental Health physicians for the purpose of involuntary commitment to an OMH facility. The OMH physicians certified that each man suffered from a mental illness and that without inpatient psychiatric treatment, each posed a high risk of re-committing sexual crimes if released into the community. The prison superintendents completed applications for involuntary commitment on medical certification pursuant to Mental Health Law.
The Mental Hygiene Legal Service filed a habeas corpus proceeding on behalf of the dozen men argued that since they were undergoing a sentence of imprisonment, it was illegal for the state to transfer them into the mental health system pursuant to the Mental Hygiene Law. They argued that the state was required to comply with the procedures set forth in Correction Law which governs the commitment of mentally ill prisoners to psychiatric hospitals and that a prison superintendent is not authorized to file an application for involuntary commitment as had occurred.
The court agreed and ordered that the men remaining in OMH custody be afforded an immediate retention hearing pursuant to the Mental Hygiene Law which is now controlling because they are no longer serving a prison sentence.
The state must comply with the procedures outlined under Correction Law for all future candidates for immediate psychiatric hospitalization.
Pataki issued a statement saying that "in light of today's decision and considering the danger it poses to the most vulnerable of New Yorkers in the coming days, I will call a special session to consider legislation to address this critical issue". 11-21-06
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© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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