DECRIMINALIZE MENTAL ILLNESS

There are three times more mentally ill people in prisons than in mental
health hospitals.

lorida's law enforcement and corrections systems have become the state's de
facto mental health treatment providers.

More often than not, our law enforcement officers, prosecutors, defense
attorneys, judges and parole officers are being forced to serve as the
first responders and overseers of a system ill equipped to deal with the
consequences of an under-funded treatment system that is stretched beyond
capacity.

While headline-grabbing tragedies often serve to define the problem in the
eyes of both the public and our policy makers, the day-to-day realities for
our officers and judges are much different.

A more familiar scenario is one in which an officer responds to repeated
incidents involving an individual known to have a history of mental illness.

With nowhere to take him or her for treatment or crisis intervention, the
officer is forced to place the person under arrest, often for such minor
infractions as disturbing the peace or loitering.

Then the process begins.

The individual makes a court appearance where the prosecutor is forced to
follow through on what often becomes a never-ending cycle of nuisance charges.

The person pleads guilty to time served and is released back on the street
with insufficient treatment and a supply of weeks of medications.
Predictably, they soon cycle back into the system. And the process begins
all over again.

According to a report recently released by Human Rights Watch, somewhere
between 200,000 and 300,000 men and women in U.S. prisons suffer from
mental disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major
depression. An estimated 70,000 are psychotic on any given day.

Florida houses about 10,000 of those prisoners who suffer from severe
mental illnesses. Yet, many prison mental health services are woefully
deficient, crippled by understaffing, insufficient facilities and limited
programs.

All too often seriously ill prisoners receive little or no meaningful
treatment.

Prisons were never intended as facilities for the mentally ill, yet that is
one of their primary roles today. Far too many men and women who cannot get
mental health treatment in the community are swept into the criminal
justice system after they commit a relatively minor crime.

In the United States, there are three times more mentally ill people in
prisons than in mental health hospitals, and prisoners have rates of mental
illness that are two to four times greater than the rates of members of the
general public.

Outside the corrections system, there is a lack of community-based
treatment for people with mental illnesses who are already living in local
communities.

Funding for community-based care and treatment has not kept pace with the
need almost anywhere in the country. That means the burden has shifted to
the criminal justice system to provide limited access to treatment, in
effect criminalizing mental illness and substance abuse.

Instead of providing care and treatment, it seems policymakers have fallen
into a form of denial about the magnitude of the problem.

As a result, millions of taxpayer dollars are being misdirected and
hundreds of thousands of people suffering with mental illnesses and
substance addictions are being warehoused in our jails and prison systems.

This solution is a travesty, and a major disservice to the families who are
urgently seeking quality treatment for their loved ones -- and to our law
enforcement professionals.

Families and professionals interacting in the mental health community are
bringing to light a point of view of justice, public safety, cost-
effectiveness and medical solutions for these medical conditions.

Advocacy organizations, such as Florida Partners in Crisis, unite law
enforcement, medical, state agency and judicial system officials with
advocates and families in a collaborative effort to work for change in the
state's mental health care system.

Florida Partners in Crisis' objective is to foster collaboration and
cooperation among the many human service agencies to improve mental health
services and processes, and to redirect people suffering with mental
illnesses from the corrections system to the health care system.

This is one step toward change; however, more needs to be done.

Building more prisons and jail space to accommodate people who need
treatment does not make sense for our communities, our families or our
criminal justice system.

In a time when state and local government funding is stretched thin, we
need to look for the most cost-effective means to address these problems.

Ensuring that people have appropriate access to treatment and medications
offers the best return on investment for Florida families and Florida
taxpayers.

John Rutherford is state director of Florida Partners in Crisis and the
sheriff of Duval County.