Officials have had preliminary discussions about how to protect the former president in the unlikely event that he is jailed for contempt during the trial.
A seemingly endless rotation between state forensic hospitals and city jails has meant that some mentally ill detainees stay in the system for years without ever standing trial.
Steven Hutcherson, who was charged in the stabbings of two teenage sisters on Christmas Day, slashed a detainee on Rikers Island three days later, the authorities said.