RIDING ON THE CRAZY TRAIN
Mentally ill repeat perps in half of attacks on MTA
Half of the nearly 40 perps busted for attacking MTA employees in the subway system last year have histories of mental illness — along with lengthy rap sheets, a Post investigation has found.
Of the 38 people charged with 41 separate assaults on train drivers, conductors, token booth clerks and other staffers underground, 20 of them had at least five arrests to their names and documented psychological problems, according to documents obtained by The Post.
“This is what I have said for some time — people with severe mental illness who pose a risk to themselves or other passengers should be in treatment, not living on the subways,” MTA chair and CEO Janno Lieber said in a statement Thursday.
He was among the officials and cops who have pinned the problem on New York’s revolving-door criminal justice system — which has few provisions to deal with chronically mentally ill New Yorkers, who often end up on Rikers Island and then back on the streets without getting the help they need.
“You cannot arrest your way out of the problem,” said NYPD Transit chief Michael Kemper in a statement. “Mental health — a person in the throes of an episode — is an ongoing problem, and obviously our tools cannot address the persistent issue of mental illness.
“We are equipped to stop an immediate threat, in one moment, at a time; disrupt a single act.”
Hundreds of pages of documents examined by The Post reveal the stark pattern: New Yorkers with long histories of mental illness and lengthy rap sheets attack MTA staff; they are arrested, often prosecuted and put behind bars — but then end up back underground after their release, where they turn violent again.
The 38 assault suspects racked up 1,126 arrests combined over their lifetimes — and four of them accounted for 252, or 22%, of those busts, the records show.
Of those four: one is in a state mental hospital, one is out on supervised release, one is serving up to three years behind bars and one is locked up pending trial.
Wayne Robinson — who was hospitalized after being declared unfit to stand trial in February — appears to be responsible for more alleged assaults on MTA staff last year than any other single person.
Robinson, who has a documented history of mental illness, was arrested in at least four separate assaults on MTA conductors in 2023 — two of which took place across two days that October, the records show.
‘Need civil commitment’
“It’s several problems combined,” said a law-enforcement source, pointing to bail reform. “The large number of people in the criminal justice system with psychiatric problems” and a supervised release system that “really cannot stay on top of the volume of people that have these issues.”
“If a person is a chronic offender and there’s underlying issues of mental illness, we can’t rely on outside supervision alone. We need to look at civil commitment,” the source added.
In one case, William Talbert — who is locked up awaiting trial in a series of assaults from September — had previously been remanded to mental health treatment after he was arrested for allegedly randomly punching someone on an M train and deemed unfit to stand trial.
Health care records, even in the criminal justice system, are heav
ily protected by confidentiality laws. That makes it virtually impossible to find out when or how Talbert left court-ordered care — and how he ended up back on the subway system only to attack again.
“We need more beds, more psych beds,” said a frustrated source. “They’re people that need help — and they’re dangerous, they’re dangerous to themselves.
“There needs to be greater authority on the ground to commit people for at least a short stay, if not longer,” they added. “We need police down there, but if the activities don’t change, we’re not going to move the ball forward.”
The MTA touted its new crisis intervention program, which teams up a cop and a social worker to intervene when station staff see someone who appears to be mentally ill and is becoming violent.
Officials said the agency’s first two “SCOUT’’ teams had responded to 75 cases during the first three months of the initiative. Of those: 45 people were placed in shelters with mental health services on-site, 15 agreed to go to the hospital for treatment and another 15 were placed in emergency rooms for urgent stabilization.
Gov. Hochul has promised the agency $20 million to expand the program to 10 teams and help fund other homeless outreach efforts underground.
“The governor’s initiatives for both law enforcement and mental health treatment are critical,” Lieber said. “The SCOUT mental health initiative . . . is reaching out to connect the highest need, highest impact individuals sheltering in the transit system with the care they need. We are ramping up cooperation with police and prosecutors so that when crimes do occur, they are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”