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 Volume I, No.4 Winter 1998
 Court Projects Opens
Mental
Health Court Wins Innovation Award
Representative
Sanderson Helps
| C.O.U.R.T.
Project Opens State
Representative Debby Sanderson was the driving force in the Legislature to obtain finding
for the Community Opportunities Utilizing Recovery Techniques project which opened five
houses on the grounds of Florida State Hospital. Representative Sanderson successfully
obtained $1.5 million in state finds which will be used in
conjunction with $400,000 from a federal lawsuit for overcrowded jails in Broward and
$250,000 from Broward County. The five houses that opened on November 24, 1998 were once
doctors homes and are now known as the "Cottages in the Pines" They will provide
shelter and treatment for indigent homeless mentally ill defendants referred from
Broward’ s Mental Health Court.
Public Defender Alan H. Schreiber’s Chief Assistant Howard
Finkelstein calls the cottages "club med for the head" and envisions an
environment where people can get well chemically, mentally, emotionally, physically and
spiritually. "The problem with traditional placement of the mentally ill at adult
congregate living facilities," says Howard, is that, "many patients just leave,
and you would to, there is nothing to do there." The residents at the "Cottages
in the Pines" will receive treatment at the facility and an array of outpatient
services including vocational and educational counseling. It is anticipated that many of
the residents will also receive substance- abuse treatment as the incidence of defendants
in Mental Health Court with a dual diagnosis (substance abuse and major mental illness) is
about 25%.
The cottages will house between 25 and 30 residents with an average
length of stay of five months. The profile of a typical resident is an indigent , homeless, mentally ill person who is in jail
for a non-violent misdemeanor charge. Judge Ginger Lerner-Wren who presides over the
Nation’s first Mental Health Court in I3roward feels that this much needed housing
and treatment option will fill a void and cut into the vicious cycling of mentally ill
defendants from homelessness to jail to homelessness. |
Cottage in the Pines
Broward County Judge Lerner-Wren
Tim Ludwig, C.O.U.R.T Project Director
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MENTAL HEALTH COURT WINS
INNOVATION AWARD
In December of 1998 Broward’s Mental Health Court won the
Innovation Award from the Florida Conference of Circuit Judges. The Court has served as a
blueprint for other jurisdictions who are seeking to address the unique needs of the
mentally ill in the criminal justice system.
The nation’s second Mental Health Court was recently established
in Seattle, Washington. The "Seattle Mental Health Court Task Force" began
studying Broward’s Court in February of a 1998 with a visit to south Florida led by
the Honorable Jim Cayce, Presiding Judge of King County District Court and Judge Judith
Hightower of the Municipal Court. The judges were joined in their visit by nine other
planners and administrators representing King County. The goal of the trip was, "to
have a diverse group of individuals from King County visit a functioning mental health
court and report back regarding the feasibility of establishing such a court in King
County."
Chief Assistant Public Defenders Howard Finkelstein and Doug Brawley met with the group
and provided detailed descriptions of the series of events that culminated in the
implementation of the Mental Health Court in Broward |
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REPRESENTATIVE
SANDERSON HELPS MENTALLY ILLREPRESENTATIVE
SANDERSON HELPS MENTALLY ILL
Representative Debbie Sanderson has been a long time supporter of those
forgotten members of society she serves. She began her legislative career in 1982 and is
currently chairperson of the Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee where she
has been a champion for those needing social services and health care.
She has been honored as Legislator of the Year by many social service
organizations including United Cerebral Palsy, Florida Diabetes Foundation, Epilepsy
Association of Broward County, The Area Agency on Aging, Broward’s Children Center
and the Florida Assisted Living Association. Most recently she spearheaded funding for the
Community Opportunities Utilizing Recovery Techniques
project which opened five houses on the grounds of South Florida State Hospital known as
the "Cottages in the Pines."
The cottages, which will provide shelter and treatment for indigent
homeless mentally ill defendants, were the product of work done by the Mental Health Task
Force chaired by Circuit Judge Mark A. Speiser. Howard Finkelstein a local television
personality and Chief Assistant Public Defender had this to say about Rep. Sanderson and
her efforts to help the mentally ill in Broward County:
"She not only talks the talk but she definitely walks the
walk. She said she would deliver and she delivered in
a very big way for the mentally ill. We should all be
grateful because she cared and she did something about
it in a way that very few could."
Representative Sanderson will be running for the state Senate in 2000. |
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