RUTHERFORD'S VISION FOR OFFENDERS IS REFRESHING

Sheriff John Rutherford had better watch it. If he keeps allowing the
"Jeffreys" of the world to inspire some vision in him, that might not
sit too well with the tough-on-crime crowd.

Jeffrey, Rutherford explained to me, is an alcoholic. He was arrested
47 times last year on various misdemeanor charges -- charges like
drunk and disorderly conduct, breach of peace -- the kinds of charges
that alcoholics have a penchant for racking up. He spent more than 200
days in jail.

But jail was no deterrent for Jeffrey as much as it was a place to
flop between tirades.

"He spent an average of 5.1 days in jail [per each arrest],"
Rutherford said, "but he'd be out 2.8 days before he'd go right back
to jail."

Rutherford wants to put a stop to that.

He wants to do that by helping the Jeffreys of the world -- the
habitual misdemeanor offenders who make up 10 percent of
Jacksonville's jail population. Most of them are like Jeffrey; their
sociopathic behavior is fueled by either alcohol or substance abuse,
or by mental illness.

But Rutherford doesn't want to do it by releasing them any sooner into
struggling neighborhoods where their tirades and sprees repel
potential residents and run longtime ones away. Rutherford wants to
keep them in jail long enough so that they can begin to turn their
lives around.

He is trying to get legislators to support a law that would require
repeat misdeameanor offenders to spend six months in jail. He and
other officials believe that would buy enough time to stabilize
mentally ill inmates by getting them on medication and into therapy.
It would also be enough time to get substance abusers into a program
so that once they are released, their chances of being arrested again
are lessened.

Right now the jail has access to an array of programs, including
relationships with River Region and the Community Mental Health
Center. Rutherford also said he'd like to see the jail ultimately
become a full, therapeutic model community.

I like what the sheriff is trying to do.

For one, he isn't just looking out for petty offenders. People who
live in transitional neighborhoods like Springfield, for example, know
that minor criminal acts can sometimes make life quite nettlesome. If
you can't put hanging plants on the porch, or plant sago palms out
front because Ray Ray just got out of jail and is stealing to support
a crack habit, then you can't even bask in the simple pleasure of
beautifying your surroundings. So Rutherford's plan would help to
bolster the quality of life for people in many neighborhoods.

I also like his plan because it is a departure from the reactionary
approach to crime; the fear-pandering approach designed to get votes
but does little else to foment real change.

What I don't like, though, is that the responsibility of dealing with
a chunk of this community's mentally ill people and substance abusers
has fallen into Rutherford's lap. That's backward. And that shouldn't
be.

But I can see how things have come to this.

Susan Seimer, CEO of the Mental Health Association of Northeast
Florida, said Jacksonville and Orlando are the lowest-funded districts
when it comes to publicly funded mental health services. While she
supports what Rutherford is trying to do, the sad irony of it all
isn't lost on her.

"Because of chronic underfunding, we're returning to a time 100 years
ago, when sick people are in jail when they ought to be in therapy,"
Seimer said. "It's not fair for law enforcement to have to deal with
sick people when they ought to be out catching bad guys."

Mark Mauer, director of the Sentencing Project, a Washington
organization that promotes criminal justice reform and alternatives to
incarceration, also applauds Rutherford's idea.

"Certainly that puts him in the top tier of sheriffs," Mauer said.
"But providing services in an institutional environment ought to be
the last option, because ultimately they're going to have to come out
and live in the community."

Still, Rutherford's vision is refreshing. But as refreshing as it is,
it still highlights a critical shortcoming in our community; the lack
of publicly funded mental health and substance abuse programs for
those who need them.

It's too bad that the ones who can change that situation aren't half
as visionary as he is.