After his mother died in 2022, Selwyn Bernardez spiraled into a grief- and drug-induced psychosis, roaming the New York City subway system with a samurai sword. He struck a panhandler, landing him on Rikers Island for six months he described as “hell on Earth.”
Then something unusual happened. His public defender secured him a spot in the Manhattan Felony Alternative-to-Incarceration Court, a diversion program that allowed him to enter comprehensive treatment and ultimately see his felony assault charge dropped. He spent a year in intensive therapy, attending recovery meetings, and completing regular court check-ins. When he graduated from the program last year, he was working again and had rebuilt family relationships, he testified at a state Senate hearing last week.
Courts around the state have set up similar programs to allow people with mental illnesses and substance use disorders to enter treatment when facing certain criminal charges, typically in exchange for a guilty plea, as an alternative to jail or prison time. But they reach just a fraction of the people who might benefit from them…