In Miami-Dade, hope, help for offenders with mental illness
Miami Herald (FL)Sep 30, 2014
Finally, the plan might become reality.
That means construction crews by early next year could begin retrofitting a sprawling, shuttered hospital on
"It shouldn't have taken this long to get this facility open," said
Advocates say a comprehensive facility is critical for a county where thousands of people, particularly the homeless, suffer from acute mental illnesses and are constantly jailed and then released onto the streets with little treatment.
"Our jails need to incarcerate people to assure public safety, not confine those with mental illness," she said.
More than anywhere in the state, the cost of mental-health services in
In
The pending project comes as federal authorities continue to scrutinize the
It's been the subject of numerous investigative reports by the
Twice, in 2004 and 2008,
The jail system has been under federal supervision since the 2011 report.
Just last year, a homeless schizophrenic man named
For the new facility, taxpayers first set aside
The new facility will be housed at
Local officials targeted the building for the new mental-health facility, and the state agreed to lease the facility to the county for just
For the the better part of the past decade, the efforts to overhaul the county's treatment of mentally ill offenders have been mired in bureaucracy. The
On a recent weekday, Leifman gave a tour of the building to officials from
Even on this visit, the need for services for the mentally illnesses is glaring. A homeless man named
Moss, who suffers from schizophrenia, risked being arrested for trespassing on county property. Instead, after much cajoling, the judge and clergy from the Camillus House convinced him to go to to the shelter for the night.
"That sounds great," Moss said with an enthusiastic smile.
When the mental-health facility opens, Moss would be able to walk in and get counseling, access to medication, vocational training, or assistance ironing out his government benefits.
The facility won't be a jail. But if he were arrested, a judge in an on-site courtroom -- after examining his criminal history -- on the spot might enter him into mental health diversion program in which a charge is dropped if he completes certain treatment.
Much of the costs of the services offered at the building are expected to be covered by a patient's federal and state benefits.
For now, the old psychiatric hospital remains a frozen-in-time reminder of how the criminal justice system handles offenders with mental illness.
Barbed wire still snakes atop the massive walls of the building. Inside, masks and restraints used to "extract" raging patients from their rooms remain in locked case. A SWAT-style plastic shield strangely sits atop a metal counter in the sprawling kitchen.
Guard stations loom dark with blank security monitors and control panels. A display board feature bullets, a makeshift gun, and an assortment of pipes and shanks -- all contraband items seized by guards.
The walls are painted in bright, bold colors. When renovation begins, the barbed wire will be stripped, the colors changed to muted pastels.
"We want to get that institutional feel out of here," Leifman explained to the visitors. "You can't make it too bright. It's not good for them."
Up on the second floor, down a water damaged hallway, will be rooms to house between 16 and 32 beds in a crisis unit. Under the state's Baker act, police will bring in people who pose a threat to themselves or others.
The facility will feature 168 beds of residential treatment where patients can stay for up to 90 days while they receive help for integration back into society, efforts overseen by case managers and in some cases, probation officers.
Another hallways leads to a large basketball court -- and a well maintained outside grassy courtyard area.
"This could be horticultural, or a garden," Leifman said. "There are a million activities we can have outside."
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