Heroic judges

[David Baxter PhD]

Heroic judges
By Treatment Advocacy Center

As you may know, Florida judges are threatening to jail a Florida mental health official for failing to transfer more than 300 jail inmates to state psychiatric hospitals for treatment. But it should not surprise anyone considering that the state closed a 382-bed state psychiatric hospital in 2002.

If judges with contempt powers can?t get the state to hospitalize mentally ill inmates, imagine the obstacles that Florida families now must face in trying to get hospital care for a loved one.

TAC applauds the Florida judges for holding the mental health administrators accountable for the neglect of the states severely mentally ill citizens. It?s about time somebody did.

 

[just mary]

Not sure if this is relevant or not, I have a friend who works in corrections and he tells me that so many of the inmates are on meds. He tells me that many of them have serious problems that simple rehabilitation won't help. Just a little second-first-hand knowledge.

 

[foghlaim]

maybe they can turn part of the hospital wing or a complete seperate wing,, of the prisons into psych wards and get the staff from the regular hospital to come to the patients. they might get the real help they need in that way.. maybe??