GRAND JURY: JAIL SHOULDN'T BE 'WAREHOUSE' FOR MENTALLY ILL

The Miami-Dade grand jury criticized how the mentally ill are treated by
the criminal justice system, and said Tasers have saved lives by minimizing
police shootings.

The Miami-Dade grand jury on Tuesday called on lawmakers to reverse decades
of failed policies toward the mentally ill that have transformed the County
Jail into a costly "warehouse" for the sick.

The grand jury's report listed a dozen recommendations to improve the lot
of mentally ill people ensnared in Miami-Dade's criminal justice system.
The most emphatic suggestion: Police should continue to use controversial
Taser stun guns to subdue volatile suspects without resorting to lethal force.

"It saves lives!" the report said.

Since last spring, the 21-member grand jury has traced the all-too- common
path of Miami-Dade's mentally disabled: from hostile confrontations with
police to barren jail cells -- stripped of sheets and mattresses to prevent
suicide -- through a forest of court hearings and psychological reviews
that ultimately leave the sick in custody eight times longer than other
Dade defendants.

Echoing a series of Herald stories published last year, the grand jury's
46-page report concluded that local and state agencies don't adequately
identify and assist the mentally ill before or after they end up in jail --
even though Florida's mentally ill population is, per capita, three times
the national average. By failing to provide more support services for the
mentally ill once they leave jail, it's all but assured they will return to
jail, the report said.

"We do not believe that persons who are sick have to go to jail before they
can receive treatment for their illness," the grand jury said. "We also do
not believe that officials should continue to spend tax dollars on persons
being recycled through our criminal justice system while at the same time
not adequately funding programs and services to help keep these persons
from returning to our jails."

Rectifying the problem would require action from the Florida Legislature.

"There clearly are members of the Dade [legislative] delegation who are
very concerned, not simply about the humanitarian issue but also the fiscal
wisdom of treating Dade's mentally ill population by recycling them through
the system without treatment," said Rep. Dan Gelber, DMiami Beach. "It
costs more and endangers the lives of citizens and police in a way that
makes very little sense."

He said the reforms are one of the few areas of broad agreement between
Republicans and Democrats.

Local mental-health advocates said the grand jury's findings merely exposed
what they already knew, and some had doubts about whether it would compel
changes.

"You have to be arrested to have access to treatment, and that's not
acceptable," said Judith Robinson, local president of the National Alliance
for the Mentally Ill.

"As long as they don't have money dedicated to keeping people well, we will
have this problem," said Rachel Diaz, head of the Miami group Families of
Untreated Mentally Ill Persons.

The grand jury did praise a host of new programs adopted by the courts and
local police agencies aimed at breaking that cycle and getting the mentally
ill safely into treatment -- ideally, before they are arrested.

The report encouraged police around the county to adopt a training program
for officers who respond to disturbances involving mentally ill suspects.
The grand jury credited the program with reducing the number of shootings
by the Miami Police Department. The panel specifically urged the Miami-Dade
Police Department to adopt Miami's training program. Miami-Dade's officers
began a slightly different training program on Monday.

In addition, the grand jury highlighted a program that diverts mentally ill
defendants rather than prosecute them in misdemeanor court, and said it
should be expanded to include felonies. The program dramatically reduced
the number of defendants who returned to jail.

But any such changes would fail if these people are not monitored by
social-service agencies already operating with too little money, the grand
jury said.

Herald staff writer Matthew I. Pinzur contributed to this report.