rockin'robin
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A bill is to stop the "revolving door" that has them in and out of prison.
TALLAHASSEE -- Advocates for overhauling the state's mental health system to keep nonviolent offenders out of jails vowed Wednesday to try to push the measure through the Legislature again in 2010 after failing to win approval for the proposal this year.
"I believe that to some extent we're in the Dark Ages in the way we treat people with mental illness," said Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart, chairman of the House Criminal and Civil Justice Policy Council.
Snyder's panel approved a measure this year authorizing three pilot sites that supporters hope will serve as a model for how to deal with tens of thousands of state residents who are in jail or under state supervision despite their condition.
Supporters hope that encouraging more community-based care for inmates will save the state money and shut down a "revolving door" that sees mentally ill Floridians shuffling in and out of the criminal justice system.
Snyder conceded that the bill's supporters have to overcome the notion that the measure will cost the state. He said the state could fund the programs called for in the proposal from the cost savings of not having to look after mentally ill inmates, and Miami-Dade County Steven Judge Leifman, who has served as a special adviser on criminal justice and mental health for the Florida Supreme Court, said some of the inmates would be eligible to tap federal Medicaid dollars.
But legislative staff analyzing the bill during the session said it could cost more than $25 million over three years.
More than 30,000 Floridians with mental illnesses are in jail and another 40,000 are under supervision, according to the Supreme Court's report, while an overwhelming majority of the 150,000 juvenile offenders are also believed to have a mental illness.
The state also maintains 1,700 beds, at a cost of $250 million a year, for defendants who are being treated so they can be fit to stand trial. In most cases, those individuals are convicted and then sentenced to time served.
The state Department of Children and Families has about 50 vacant beds for mentally ill defendants and expects them to be filled by December, said Bill Janes, the agency's assistant secretary for substance abuse and mental health.
Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford said his department spends more than $300,000 a year observing mentally ill inmates to ensure they don't commit suicide. The jail's sixth floor and an entire, separate dormitory are filled with mentally ill offenders.
But he was cautious about the state plan, saying a similar plan in the 1970s to close down a number of state mental hospitals and replace them with community services only essentially led to the hospitals closing.
"The problem is those community services never materialized, at least not in adequate capacity," he said.
Rutherford was also skeptical of the claim that cost savings could cover the new services.
"We heard that from the state back in the '70s," he said.
Supporters fight for the mentally ill behind bars | Jacksonville.com
TALLAHASSEE -- Advocates for overhauling the state's mental health system to keep nonviolent offenders out of jails vowed Wednesday to try to push the measure through the Legislature again in 2010 after failing to win approval for the proposal this year.
"I believe that to some extent we're in the Dark Ages in the way we treat people with mental illness," said Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart, chairman of the House Criminal and Civil Justice Policy Council.
Snyder's panel approved a measure this year authorizing three pilot sites that supporters hope will serve as a model for how to deal with tens of thousands of state residents who are in jail or under state supervision despite their condition.
Supporters hope that encouraging more community-based care for inmates will save the state money and shut down a "revolving door" that sees mentally ill Floridians shuffling in and out of the criminal justice system.
Snyder conceded that the bill's supporters have to overcome the notion that the measure will cost the state. He said the state could fund the programs called for in the proposal from the cost savings of not having to look after mentally ill inmates, and Miami-Dade County Steven Judge Leifman, who has served as a special adviser on criminal justice and mental health for the Florida Supreme Court, said some of the inmates would be eligible to tap federal Medicaid dollars.
But legislative staff analyzing the bill during the session said it could cost more than $25 million over three years.
More than 30,000 Floridians with mental illnesses are in jail and another 40,000 are under supervision, according to the Supreme Court's report, while an overwhelming majority of the 150,000 juvenile offenders are also believed to have a mental illness.
The state also maintains 1,700 beds, at a cost of $250 million a year, for defendants who are being treated so they can be fit to stand trial. In most cases, those individuals are convicted and then sentenced to time served.
The state Department of Children and Families has about 50 vacant beds for mentally ill defendants and expects them to be filled by December, said Bill Janes, the agency's assistant secretary for substance abuse and mental health.
Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford said his department spends more than $300,000 a year observing mentally ill inmates to ensure they don't commit suicide. The jail's sixth floor and an entire, separate dormitory are filled with mentally ill offenders.
But he was cautious about the state plan, saying a similar plan in the 1970s to close down a number of state mental hospitals and replace them with community services only essentially led to the hospitals closing.
"The problem is those community services never materialized, at least not in adequate capacity," he said.
Rutherford was also skeptical of the claim that cost savings could cover the new services.
"We heard that from the state back in the '70s," he said.
Supporters fight for the mentally ill behind bars | Jacksonville.com
