Florida Chief Justice Hosts Landmark Summit on Mental Health, Other Chief Justice Task Forces Continue to Make Progress
On November 14, Chief Justice Fred Lewis of the Florida Supreme Court hosted an unprecedented forum among state leaders to unveil a plan to improve the state's mental health system and to better coordinate services provided to people with mental illnesses, including those involved with the criminal justice system. The plan unveiled at the event is part of the work undertaken by Florida's Chief Justice-led task force, one of seven such statewide task forces convened by the Council of State Governments Justice Center and the National GAINS/TAPA Center to improve responses to people with mental illnesses involved with the criminal justice system. (View a pdf of the Supreme Court press release here.)
Governor Crist spoke at the event: "We have a responsibility to support and care for the most vulnerable among us, and at the same time, ensure the safety of our communities while also being good stewards of taxpayer dollars." The plan detailed in the report, Transforming Florida’s Mental Health System, recommends the development of a strategy to reduce the state's dependence on state forensic mental health beds and to reinvest millions of state dollars currently spent on those beds in community-based mental health treatment. In 2006, Florida ranked 12th in the country in spending for forensic mental health services, and since then, spending has dramatically increased, with $16 million in emergency funding and $48 million in annual funding added in the past year. Conversely, Florida ranks 48th nationally in terms of overall per capital public mental health spending. (Download a pdf of the report here.)
Key Florida agency heads, including Secretary Bob Butterworth of the Department of Children and Families, Secretary James McDonough of the Department of Corrections, and Secretary Walt McNeil of the Department of Juvenile Justice, attended the summit. State Senator Stephen Wise, a member of the Justice Center Board of Directors and chairman of the Committee on Education Pre-K-12 Appropriations, also attended. The event generated extensive media coverage, and numerous newspapers issued editorials in support of the report's findings, available on the Criminal Justice/Mental Health InfoNet.
Chief Justice Lewis assigned Judge Steve Leifman as the Supreme Court's Special Advisor on Criminal Justice and Mental Health to manage the day-to-day operations of the task force, and Judge Leifman delivered the report's findings and recommendations at the forum on November 14. Leifman also serves as the co-chair of the national Chief Justices' Criminal Justice / Mental Health Leadership Initiative, which the Justice Center coordinates in partnership with the GAINS Center.
Chief justices in six other states were also selected to participate in the Chief Justices' Criminal Justice/Mental Health Leadership Initiative and receive funding support and technical support from the Justice Center and the GAINS Center. The chief justices in these states, California, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, Texas, and Vermont, have convened task forces to develop strategies to improve outcomes for people with mental illnesses in the justice system across the state.
Hon. Sharon Keller, the highest ranking jurist in the Texas criminal court system (and vice chair of the Justice Center Board) has led that state's task force, which played a pivotal role in the enactment of legislation this year that facilitated information-sharing among criminal justice and mental health agencies. Funding has already been designated to implement the new law, which will allow authorized jail and court personnel to determine immediately whether individuals brought before them have had prior contact with the mental health system and whether they should undergo further assessment. The Texas task force is also in the process of developing a model tracking form to standardize the information jails pass along to courts. This tracking form will be tested in several jurisdictions in 2008 and if found to be effective, distributed across the state.
Nevada's task force has developed a proposal for three pilot reentry mental health courts to address recent changes to parole regulations. In September, Chief Justice William Maupin appeared before the Legislature's Interim Finance Committee to describe the plan, which will help individuals with mental illnesses approved for parole transition into the community with adequate supervision and connection to services. In January, the task force will formally submit the proposal and has already begun to explore service capacity issues. In addition, the task force is planning two statewide educational symposia on criminal justice/mental health issues for 2008.
Court leaders in the remaining four states have not yet finalized their strategic plans but continue to convene their task forces and explore a number of strategies. Georgia has created four working groups to develop a standardized jail screening tool for the state, expand a crisis hotline that will direct people to local services, and explore a number of juvenile issues and potential statutory changes. Vermont’s task force has also made remarkable progress through a series of monthly meetings and has decided to focus on pre-sentencing issues.
The seven states participating in the Chief Justices' Criminal Justice/Mental Health Leadership Initiative were selected in early 2007 from among 23 applicants. The chief justices and key task force members attended a national policy forum in April and have worked closely with Justice Center and GAINS Center staff to develop strategies to address criminal justice/mental health issues. The Justice Center, together with the GAINS Center, anticipates the release of updates on the initiative in the coming months, describing how chief justices in other states can become involved. The Chief Justices’ Criminal Justice/Mental Health Leadership Initiative is made possible by funding support from the JEHT Foundation and Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.
