Mental health advocates say Scott’s executive order on prisons “long overdue”

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Mental health advocates have reacted with cautious optimism to news that Gov. Rick Scott has ordered an independent analysis of the state’s prison system and the development of two prisons to test new ways of handling and housing prisoners with mental health issues.

“It’s long overdue,” said Denise Marzullo, president and CEO of Mental Health America of Northeast Florida.

“I’m happy that they’re looking into it. I just hope that they don’t just do a study, listen to a lot of people and then put that study on a shelf somewhere. That there really is action,” she said during an appearance on WJCT’s First Coast Connect.

Scott’s executive order also directs the Department of Corrections to work with the Departments of Children and Families and Juvenile Justice on finding ways to improve mental health services for inmates.

Marzullo sees the move as a welcome if belated acknowledgement that in most communities, the largest mental health facility is usually the jail.

“That trend began some time ago with the closing of state hospitals in the 1960s and ’70s,” she said. “The money that was supposed to go in its place to community-based care went away. And if people aren’t getting treatment for their mental illness, that leads to arrests, and prisons.”

“Jails aren’t designed as mental health facilities, but that’s what they’ve become. And now people are starting to realize, we’ve got to do something better than what we’ve been doing.”

Marzullo said she hopes the initiative not only brings in state agencies but also the expertise of mental health treatment providers.

Florida’s prison system is one of the nation’s largest and houses about 100,000 inmates. But it’s been under increased scrutiny after suspicious deaths and allegations of cover-ups. At the same time, Florida is one of the lowest-funded states in the nation when it comes to mental health services. Scott, Marzullo points out, vetoed several line items in the most recent budget dealing with mental health funding and treatment.

“The governor just vetoed $97,000 for Duval County to have processors working inside the jail helping mentally ill people apply for Social Security and disability income benefits. That would have been a huge preventative measure that was vetoed. So Rick Scott is saying he’s concerned about this, but a direct huge step that could have been taken, he vetoed,” she said.