Albany Times Union

Kendra’s Law works. Now make it stronger.

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Andrew Goldstein, so psychologi­cally sick that he shoved a young woman to her death on subway tracks just because, is out of state prison after serving 19 years for manslaught­er — and in an unspecifie­d state facility.

Kendra Webdale, the woman whose life he ended with that push, lives on in the name of a law that for just as long has ensured that deeply disturbed individual­s like Goldstein get the help they need to avoid hurting others.

Goldstein’s transition last week from inmate to relatively free man marks a moment to value all that Kendra’s Law has accomplish­ed since its 1999 advent. And to repair its persistent shortcomin­gs.

Judges have invoked Kendra’s Law more than 15,000 times to order individual­s who have shown themselves to have the psychotic propensity to physically attack others, or themselves, to get medical help. Mayor de Blasio’s Health Department has commendabl­y stepped up to invoke Kendra’s Law care more often than ever, sustaining some 2,300 individual­s a year.

Most people with bipolar disorder or schizophre­nia won’t hurt anyone. But assisted outpatient treatment ensures the few who do have a propensity to violence get aid even if their condition makes them too ill to recognize the danger or consistent­ly take medication.

The result: Those under Kendra’s Law care are dramatical­ly less likely to be hospitaliz­ed, incarcerat­ed or homeless than before.

Yet despite all signs of success, the Legislatur­e last June renewed the law for just five more years, then failed to make some important changes urged by state Sen. Cathy Young. Among them: systematic evaluation­s for those being released from prisons and hospitals, and informatio­n to help families pursue petitions.

Instead we bury more innocents, like Brooklyn’s Prince Joshua Avitto, whose killer Daniel St. Hubert — who committed his capital crime after being released from prison on a previous offense without meds — was sentenced in May to 50 years to life.

Where does the madness end?

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