Come on, Eliot. Show us the love.

Despite being progressive on correctional issues, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is less enlightened on the subject of mental illness. Cara Matthews of Gannett writes:

A bill to end the practice of placing seriously mentally ill inmates in solitary confinement passed the Senate unanimously Thursday and is likely to breeze through the Assembly.

This would be the second consecutive year both houses passed the measure, but it appears likely that Gov. Eliot Spitzer will veto it, just as his predecessor, George Pataki, did.

The governor’s Budget Division said in a memo the state would have to treat an estimated 1,500 to 2,100 inmates based on the bill. Shifting prisoners and building new treatment centers would leave excess capacity equivalent to two prisons, so the state would have to pursue closing existing facilities, it said.

That’s certainly one way to torpedo legislation — make the public think they would have to pay for it. But …

Advocates said they believe the number of affected inmates would only be about 600 inmates. The legislation would be for people with serious mental illness and whose behavior was directly related to that, said Harvey Rosenthal, executive director of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services.

“With the passage of this bill, we think that New York will have taken all of the steps necessary to properly reform our prison mental-health system,” Rosenthal said.

That sounds a bit rosy, but the guv isn’t buying it. That’s a shame. Says the sponsoring legislator, Sen. Michael Nozzolio (a Republican):

“With this bill, New York is recognizing that there are certain forms of punishment for inmates with serious mental illness that are inhumane and counterproductive.”

liz | 4:15 PM | Uncategorized