FLORIDA HAS MADE MENTAL ILLNESS A CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROBLEM

Florida's law enforcement and corrections systems are rapidly evolving
into 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
an underfunded treatment system that's stretched beyond capacity.

While headline-grabbing tragedies often define the problem in the eyes
of 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
making lewd gestures at passing motorists.

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, without treatment or
support. Predictably, he or she soon cycles back into the system. And
the process begins all over again.

According to a report recently released by Human Rights Watch, 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. 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 general public.

Outside the corrections system, there is a lack of community-based
treatment. Funding for this hasn't kept pace with the need almost
anywhere in the country. Warehousing people with mental illnesses and
substance abuse problems in our jails and prison systems is a terrible
waste of resources and a major disservice to the families who are
urgently seeking treatment for their loved ones - and to our law
enforcement professionals.

Policy-makers have fallen into a form of denial about the magnitude of
the problem. As a result, millions of taxpayer dollars are being
wasted and hundreds of thousands of people who could be helped are
left in inappropriate settings.

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

Florida Partners in Crisis' objective is to foster collaboration and
cooperation among human service agencies and to redirect people with
mental illness 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 doesn't make sense for our communities, families or criminal
justice system. In a time when state and local government funding is
stretched thin, we need to be looking 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 sheriff of Duval County and state director of
Florida Partners in Crisis.