The Legal Aid Society, Disability Rights New York (DRNY), and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP brought new claims in M.G. v. Cuomo, litigation brought in January 2019 to challenge New York’s systemic failure to provide community-based services to people with serious mental illness upon their release from prison, reports Mother Jones.

The amended complaint is brought in response to the State’s practice of releasing New Yorkers with serious mental illness to homeless shelters and psychiatric institutions, rather than safe and appropriate housing. This practice denies people with serious mental illness the services they need to successfully reenter society after their incarceration.

“The failure to provide those services creates this revolving door where people get out of prison, end up in a homeless shelter, get significantly worse, and end up in an institution,” said Stefen Short, Supervising Attorney with our Prisoners’ Rights Project.