A state law giving judges the power to order the severely mentally ill into treatment is set to expire at the end of next month, and mental health advocates are split about whether it should be made permanent. NY1's Erin Billups filed the following report.

Kendra Webdale was murdered in 1999, pushed in front of a subway car by a stranger with untreated schizophrenia.

The state responded with Kendra's Law, giving courts the power to order those who have resisted mental health treatment into care.

"It mandates that the system provide that individual with treatment," said Stephen Eide, senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute. "There has been a temptation for resources to kind of drift towards other mentally ill people, people who are easier to treat."

Kendra's Law expires June 30, and while lawmakers agree on its value, there is a fight about whether to make it permanent or just extend it.

The Senate passed a bill to make it permanent, a move applauded by Eide of the right-leaning Manhattan Institute, who recently authored a paper on the law's benefits.

"Looking at homelessness and hospitalizations, Kendra's Law reduces the number of those types of experiences by 60 percent," Eide said.

Some mental health advocates argue the law wrongfully perpetuates the belief that most people with serious mental illnesses are violent. They say an extension with a sunset provision creates needed legislative oversight.

"Our main goal is to see less orders and a better functioning system in its place," said Harvey Rosenthal, executive director of the New York Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services. "Court orders are based on the premise that we failed to engage someone, or that they are somehow unengageable."

City officials also support just an extension.

"This whole debate about Kendra's Law loses sight of the fact that we need a lot of tools, that it doesn't work for a lot of people," said Dr. Gary Belkin, executive deputy commissioner for mental hygiene.

A City Council committee recently reviewed the progress of Thrive NYC, the city's mental health overhaul, and organizers say Thrive is working to offer additional resources to New Yorkers with serious mental illness.

"To be much more flexible, we have new kinds of mobile treatments that can reach people that we just didn't have before," Belkin said.

The city says about 20 percent of Thrive's budget helps the seriously mentally ill. 

The state Assembly is expected to soon introduce a bill extending Kendra's Law.