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Lydia White introduced today’s program speaker…
The Honorable Stephen Leifman,
Associate Administrative Judge, Criminal Division
The Criminal Mental Health Project (CMHP)
Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building
1351 NW 12 Street, Room 617, Miami, FL 33125
Tel.: (305) 548-5394
sleifman@jud11.flcourts.org
President Linda introduced The Honorable Steven
Leifman, County Judge for the 11th Judicial Circuit, who also serves as the
Associate Administrative Judge and a candidate for reelection to the Bench.
Judge Leifman has earned the highest rating – Exceptionally Qualified – in
the recent Florida Bar Poll as well as numerous honors cumulatively from 2003 to
the present. Among his many awards, is the 2003 Legal Citizen of the Year. The
2004 National Alliance Award, and the 2004 Health Care Hero Award presented by
the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce.
Judge Leifman chairs the Eleventh Judicial Circuit’s
Criminal Mental Health Project (CMHP) Committee and is responsible for creating
this project. This successful program diverts non-violent, misdemeanor
defendants with mental illnesses to appropriate mental health facilities and
provides crisis intervention team training for law enforcement agencies in our
county.
Citing some startling statistics, Judge Leifman pointed out that
Miami-Dade County has the highest percentage of mentally ill – higher than the
national average – in the Dade County jail. In fact, Dade County jail has five
times more mentally ill prisoners than the number of mentally ill hospitalized
throughout State Hospitals from the Panhandle to Key West. In 1965, there were
560,000 patients in State Mental Hospitals, 700,000 arrested, and between
300,000 to 400,000 in jail. In 1999, 18 mentally ill people were killed by
police agencies, which are trained to deal with aggression but not with the
mentally ill. Schizophrenics in particular, react aggressively and when a police
officer becomes aggressive, the schizophrenic becomes more aggressive. Police
have more arrests of mentally ill than from burglaries, assaults and DIU’s
combined. Judge Leifman pointed out that jailing the mentally ill was the
most expensive cost for social and public services.
Judge Leifman shared his excitement at being elected to the Bench for the
first time and hearing his first case – a mentally ill individual whose parents
begged him to send their son to jail in hopes that he would find help from
therapy. Idealistically looking to be of real value as a jurist, he ordered a
psychiatric exam for the individual, only to hear the Public Defender speak the
words that judges have come to learn is an attorney’s way of telling a judge
they’ve messed up: “begging you pardon, Your Honor!” He learned that as a County
Judge, he was prohibited by a Florida Supreme Court ruling from ordering
psychiatric exams. From this incident, Judge Leifman has made it his
personal quest to ensure help for the mentally ill.
From this background, Judge Leifman made a concerted effort to bring
about positive change. He organized a two-day program that included police,
corrections officers, State Attorneys, Public Defenders and mental health
experts. From this, special training was provided to Police Agencies who formed
Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT) and encourage Rotarians who might have to call
the police because of an incident with a mentally ill person, to specifically
request a CIT officer. Since the CIT program began, Judge Leifman pointed
to a reduction of recidivism dropping from 70% to 17% and translated that into a
$2.6 million savings in public funds. Judge Leifman went on to encourage
groups like Rotary to become involved in providing assistance to the mentally
ill.
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