Jun 3, 2020

Recidivism dropped from 80% to 25%. Arrests have fallen from 118’000 to 56’000 a year. Jails are closing.

The Miami-Dade (Florida, US) Criminal Mental Health Project (CMHP) works with people who have committed crimes and have a mental illness, under the premise that jail is the last resort. Rather than making mental illness a crime, an issue I discussed in my EU Public Health Week presentation. the program guides people through treatment plans, therapy, and job searches. The police, prosecutors and judges work together to help the accused recover and regain their lives.

A new documentary, The Definition of Insanity, takes viewers through the courtroom, following a peer counselor and several cases for 18 months.

Accodring to the CMHP, 17% of inmates have a serious mental illness, costing taxpayers $50 million a year. Defendants with a serious mental illness (SMI) or an SMI and substance use disorder, are diverted to a community-based treatment and support system. 

The two components of the program are pre-booking, where Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training teaches officers to de-escalate situations and understand that someone with a mental illness may not be able to respond to directions from the police, and post-booking, where pepole awaiting trial are served. Clients are provided with community-based transition plans to help them be successful in the community.

More on the documentary: https://www.kpbs.org/news/2020/apr/13/definition-insanity/?mc_cid=d5154ce380&mc_eid=9f9021aba4

You can also read more about the program at: https://www.jud11.flcourts.org/Criminal-Mental-Health-Project

For another similar project that helps inmates access needed services in the community, see:  https://commed.umassmed.edu/news/2019/12/17/commonwealth-medicine-collaborates-massachusetts-initiative-providing-community  (Full disclosure: I worked on this program)

We need more such solutions so our social problems – ones that are effective for those involved, save money, and produce better results for society.