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End wasteful, cruel policies on mentally ill
A Times Editorial
Published November 19, 2007
Applause all around on this one. The governor, the state Supreme Court and top public officials around the state have come together to address the wasteful and cruel practice of using our jails and prisons as a dumping ground for Florida's seriously mentally ill. The unified effort to bring more intensive community-based care to this population is a sensible way forward that will save the state money in the long term and significantly better the lives of some of the state's most vulnerable residents.
The ambitious plan resulted from a study sponsored by the Florida Supreme Court. The working group chaired by Judge Steven Leifman, of Miami-Dade County, includes key members of all three branches of government as well as various service providers and has been analyzing the problem for months. Its 170-page report, titled "Transforming Florida's Mental Health System," offers a series of efficacious and compassionate recommendations.
Some 125,000 people with mental illness are booked into Florida jails every year. Their crimes are typically minor and a direct consequence of the problems they have functioning normally in society. There have been great advances in mental health treatment, but Florida doesn't make it easy for poor people with serious mental disabilities to gain access to the care and support they need. Instead, the state largely uses its prisons and jails as modern-day mental institutions, offering prisoners just enough treatment to stabilize them to stand trial.
The centerpiece of the new strategy is spending a little extra money up front to bring community-based mental health resources to those who need them before they wind up cycling in and out of the criminal justice system. This will serve the dual goals of enhancing public safety as well as helping a large percentage of the mentally ill who can function relatively well with proper care and medication.
If comprehensive support and services are delivered well, the state will save money. Fewer of these people will end up arrested, jailed and committed to forensic hospitals at an outsized public expense. Medicaid treatment dollars also would be available for this up-front care.
This government cooperation was made possible by the cultural shift in Tallahassee brought about by Gov. Charlie Crist. The governor joined R. Fred Lewis, chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court, to announce the project. And the appointments Crist has made in key positions, such as Department of Children and Families Secretary Bob Butterworth, Corrections Secretary Jim McDonough, and Dr. Andrew Agwunobi, secretary of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, have focused on problem solving rather than pointing fingers.
There still is a long way to go before this plan moves from paper to reality, and it will be particularly difficult to find the millions of dollars in up-front money in this time of spending cutbacks. But the plan is a smart and solid one that should be implemented.
[Last modified November 18, 2007, 19:56:09]
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