Mentally-ill bed cuts a looming ‘disaster’: pol

A city lawmaker Monday warned of a “disaster” for the city after the number of proposed beds for mentally-ill inmates was slashed in half for the jail under construction on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.

Councilman Lincoln Restler grilled Health + Hospitals brass on how the city is prepared to treat mentally disturbed suspects at the jails across the boroughs once Rikers Island is shut down.

Restler (D-Brooklyn) noted that 55% of inmates at Rikers require mental-health treatment and that the Brooklyn detention center is only slated to have 22% of beds for mentally-ill patients — down from initial funding for 44% of beds.

“To go from 55% of total people to having mental health designation to only 22% of the beds actually being designed to meet their needs is a recipe for disaster,” he said.

The questions came after a series of shocking crimes allegedly committed by serial offenders with a history of mental illness — including by Cyril Destin, 62, who is charged with stabbing a tourist near Times Square on Saturday in a totally unprovoked attack.

Senior Vice President for H+H Dr. Patsy Yang said that “Correctional Health Services will provide what it needs to provide in the setting that it does.”

“But we’re designing a jail where 22% of the beds actually are going to meet their needs,” Restler said.

“That’s a disconnect that is so vast, that it’s hard for me to persuade my constituents that we’re actually going to do better and I hope that we can come up with an operational solution together.”

In 2019, the City Council signed off on closing Rikers by 2027 — with the backing of former Mayor Bill de Blasio.