Okaloosa County has a unique diversion program: Mental Health Court.



Mental Health Court addresses a very serious and expensive problem: what do we do with people who have chronic mental health conditions and find themselves getting arrested because they cannot control their behavior?



The normal answer, lock them up in jail or send them for years to state prison, is increasing looked upon as a last resort. Frankly, a growing consensus is leaning towards a more damning indictment - stupid.



The target population is not deterred by incarceration. Probation equals violation. Jail becomes a revolving door. Here is a common example:



John Doe is arrested for trespass at a liquor store after he refuses to leave. Drunk and obnoxious, he is taken to jail and processed. Since he cannot make bond, he stays. Worse, he has to be kept in special housing because he is a management problem, requires expensive medical care including mental health medication, and he will ultimately be sentenced to time already served. He will be medically stable for a short time, but this is temporary. He will be penniless when he is released, run out of medication, and within a few weeks or months, get arrested again.



A normal inmate will cost around fifty dollars ($50) each and every day in jail. (Please spare me the 'make them pay' nonsense - stupid is not the new smart). However, John Doe will cost almost twice that amount and will be arrested twenty to thirty times in his lifetime.



Florida's Mental Health Court is a step in the right direction, however, there is little funding for proper diagnosis and virtually no funding to study the program's effectiveness. Brain imaging based diagnostics would be the most cost effective way to solve this problem, yet once again the powers that be prefer penny wise and pound foolish: the money for a proper diagnosis is never provided and another bandaid measure is the law of the State.





