Eric: Keep us rail safe

Mental-health push

Leading mayoral contender Eric Adams says he’ll get dangerous mentally ill people off the subways and into treatment facilities if elected by expanding the use of Kendra’s Law.

“We must strengthen Kendra’s Law,” Brooklyn Borough President Adams said at a press conference Monday morning with members of the Transport Workers Union at 14th Street and First Avenue.

“Judges, do your job,” Adams said. “It’s time to use Kendra’s Law to deal with the mentalhealth crisis that we’re seeing.”

Kendra’s Law allows judges to compel people with serious mental illness to take medication or undergo supervised psychiatric treatment. The number of New Yorkers receiving mandated treatment has declined in recent years.

The act was passed more than 20 years ago, after aspiring screenwriter Kendra Webdale was killed by a schizophrenic man who pushed her in front of a moving train in a Manhattan subway station.

A recent spike in violence in city subways and on bus routes included a bloody A-train slashing rampage that left two dead and two others wounded.

Adams’ subway-safety plan also includes sending teams of mental-health workers to conduct “routine inspections,” increasing coordination between transit police and street patrols, and boosting the number of psychiatric beds.

“MTA is not a psychiatric facility where people should live and sleep,” Adams said. “We need to increase these beds and give people the support of services that they need.”