Who Are We?
The Mental Health Project of the Urban Justice Center is a team of attorneys, social workers and advocates dedicated to enforcing the rights of low-income New Yorkers with mental illness. We represent individual clients, bring class action lawsuits and engage in community education with the belief that low-income people with mental illness are entitled to live stable and full lives, free from discrimination.
What Do We Do?
- Homelessness Prevention/Income Maintenance: Represent clients in housing matters and advocate for social policies that combat homelessness. Ensure that clients have access to benefits, including food stamps, Social Security and public assistance.
- Discharge Planning: Enforce state and federal laws requiring hospitals, jails and prisons to provide people with mental illness with crucial social services prior to discharge.
- Criminal Justice: Fight against the criminalization of mental illness and for the humane treatment of people in prison with mental illness.
- Disability Rights: Advocate for the rights of people with mental illness to live in the least restrictive setting appropriate, and to be active participants in decisions regarding their lives.
- Advocacy for Veterans: Assist veterans with PTSD and other mental health problems by providing legal services to access housing, health care and income.
Why Is Our Work Necessary?
Low-income people with severe and persistent mental illness die, on average, 25 years earlier than other Americans. Many cycle between hospitals, jails and the streets. To beat the odds, our clients need assistance obtaining the basic necessities of life: food, housing, medical care and clothing. To ensure stability and dignity, they need still more: community integration and government programs that truly provide a social safety net.
Key Accomplishments of 2010:
- Won a landmark ruling, as co-counsel in Disability Advocates Inc. v. Paterson, that New York State’s practice of warehousing people with mental illness in large institutions known as “adult homes” violates their right to live in the most integrated setting appropriate for them;
- Prevailed on appeal in Clark v. Astrue, a class action lawsuit challenging the Social Security Administration’s policy of suspending the benefits of tens of thousands of retired and disabled people based on often-erroneous warrants;
- Met with 1,700 incarcerated people with mental illness to ensure that they are receiving court-mandated discharge planning services pursuant to Brad H. v. City of New York;
News and Events
MHP Responds to City's Initiative to Address High Rates of People with Mental Illness in Jails
Although the overall number of people in jail is on the decline, the
number of incarcerated people with mental illness continues to
increase. At long last the City appears to be giving the crisis of
the incarceration of people with mental illness the attention it
deserves. Twelve years ago the Urban Justice Center sued the City for
its failure to provide services to people with mental illness released
from jail. (See Brad H. v. City of New York special section.)
The City has
never lived up to its obligations and opposes extending the Brad
H. settlement agreement which requires it to provide this population
with treatment referrals, medication and prescriptions, public
benefits, and housing assistance upon release. We are pleased that
the City is now focused on identifying the factors that cause people
with mental illness to be incarcerated and remain in the city jails at
such high rates and on developing treatment interventions. The City
can start to address this crisis by embracing its obligation under the
Brad H. settlement and set up a system that provides quality,
individualized discharge planning services. If New York really wants
to be a leader on this issue, getting discharge planning right is an
important first step. It is unconscionable that in more than eight
years, the City has not lived up to its obligation.
NY1:
"Rikers Island Struggles With Record Mental Illness Numbers,"
September 30, 2011
The Fight Continues in Brad H.
On June 28, 2011, the New York State Court of Appeals ruled that New York City must continue to comply with a landmark 2003 settlement in which the City agreed to provide services to incarcerated people with mental illness upon their release, including continued mental health care, medications and prescriptions, substance abuse treatment, case management, public benefits, housing and transportation. The decision, which reinstates a 2009 Supreme Court decision that had been overturned at the Appellate Division, will allow litigation to proceed on whether the 2003 settlement can be extended an additional two years.
Unfortunately the problems with discharge planning which we described in our 2009 preliminary injunction motion have not been ameliorated during the two years in which the appeal was pending. With the appeal resolved, we look forward to holding the City accountable for providing these much-needed services.
For more than a decade, the Mental Health Project, with the support of our co-counsel Debevoise & Plimpton and New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, has fought for the rights of incarcerated people with mental illness to receive the supports needed to transition from treatment in jail to the community. For more information on the Brad H. litigation, click here.
Mental Health Project Files Suit Against Social Security for Failure to Provide Full and Fair Hearings
On April 12, 2011, the Mental Health Project filed a class action lawsuit charging systematic bias against low-income disabled individuals seeking Social Security disability benefits in Queens. The suit against the Social Security Administration seeks the disqualification of five Administrative Law Judges at the Queens Office of Disability Adjudication and Review because of their persistent denial of claims based on glaring and intentional legal and procedural errors, thereby depriving thousands of eligible claimants of benefits they need to survive. The suit was filed in conjunction with pro bono counsel at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
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NY1: Eight Queens Residents Pressing For Social Security Reform
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Click here
for the press release
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Click here
for the NY Times article
Director of the Mental Health Project Attends Global Human Rights Conference in Geneva
Eve Stotland, the Director of UJC's Mental Health Project, was one of approximately twenty experts from around the world invited to participate in a human rights workshop on March 17 & 18 in Geneva, Switzerland. Hosted by the International Council on Human Rights Policy, the workshop focused on the penalization of people living in poverty—the way that governments around the world criminalize, segregate and control poor people. We were excited to learn that the organizers sought out UJC participation because of our reputation for quality work in this area.
Eve's comments focused on the criminalization of mental illness in the United States, where people with serious mental illness are three times as likely to be in prison as in a hospital. New York's jails and prisons also make wide use of "disciplinary segregation," better known as solitary confinement or "the box," in which prisoners are isolated in their cells for twenty-three hours per day. Talking is not permitted, and access to food, light and water may be restricted. Eve spoke about the Mental Health Project's role, as part of a state-wide coalition, in the passage of a new law that limits when, and for how long, the state can keep people with mental illness in solitary confinement.
The workshop included experts from countries including India, South Africa, Kenya, Columbia and Australia. The findings from the workshop will be published in an independent paper, and will also be incorporated into a report that United Nations Independent Expert on Extreme Poverty, Magdalena Sepulveda, will present to the United Nations General Assembly in October, 2011.
"Being surrounded by a global community dedicated to fighting poverty was an amazing experience," said Eve. "I now have colleagues from around the globe to confer with as we at the Mental Health Project continue our work to enforce the rights of low-income New Yorkers with mental illness."
Click here
for Eve's Working Note for the International Workshop on the
Criminalization, Segregation and Control of People Living in Poverty.
Nationwide Class of Tens of Thousands Certified in Social Security Class Action
On March 18, 2011, a federal district court certified a nationwide class in Clark v. Astrue, a lawsuit filed by the Mental Health Project to challenge the Social Security Administration's policy of suspending and denying Social Security and SSI benefits whenever someone had an outstanding warrant for an alleged violation of probation or parole. A federal appellate court had already ruled in plaintiffs' favor on the merits of the case one year ago. The district court has now certified a nationwide class of individuals whose Social Security or SSI benefits were suspended or denied on or after October 29, 2006. It is estimated the class easily numbers in many tens of thousands of people who have been deprived of hundreds of millions of dollars.
MHP Launches the Veteran Advocacy Project
MHP is beginning the Veteran Advocacy Project (VAP) to help veterans
achieve the stability needed to regain their health and rebuild their
lives. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs revealed that 18
veterans commit suicide each day. Establishing eligibility for VA
services, including medical care and benefits, is a complicated and
lengthy process—and not every veteran will qualify. When these
veterans face legal challenges, such as eviction or an improper
termination of food stamps, it dramatically increases the risk that
they will spiral further into illness, become homeless, or commit
suicide. The Veteran Advocacy Project will intervene before veterans
reach the breaking point by ensuring their access to housing, health
care, and income.
Read more about the project services.
"Legal Fellowship Awards Supports Veterans Advocacy Project at UJC,"
New York Nonprofit Press,
April 29, 2011
"Equal Justice Works Fellowships Serve Appetite for Public Service,"
New York Law Journal,
May 12, 2011
Changes to Medical Criteria for Evaluating Mental Disorders Proposed
MSA Applauds Improvements, Urges Clarity
On November 17, 2010, MHP submitted comments to SSA regarding proposed revisions to the medical criteria it uses to evaluate mental disorders for applicants for Social Security disability and Supplement Security Income benefits. The comments applauded several positive changes proposed by SSA, but urged the agency to provide more clarity and to abandon certain proposed revisions that would be overly restrictive.
NY Times Supports MHP's Suit
Lawsuit would End Warehousing of New Yorkers with Mental Illness
"Obey the Law on the Mentally Ill," NY Times, July 7, 2010
