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The Miami Herald

April 11, 2003

Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.


EDITORIAL
Reform the Baker Act

Communities need a more-effective tool to treat mentally ill residents before they become a violent threat. Lawmakers should give them that tool by allowing judges to order the mentally ill to take medication. 

Similar legislation has created a ripple effect of benefits in 41 states: The laws have allowed people who pose a danger to society to stick with their drug regimen; they have cut drastically the recidivism rate among people suffering from illnesses, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia; they have reduced the number of violent confrontations between police and the mentally ill. This is important -- Miami-Dade County has had too many fatal police shootings that might have been averted. 

Senate bill 2748 and House bill 1197 should get top priority in committee and, ultimately, be approved by the full Legislature. In Florida, a mentally ill person must show explicit signs of being a danger to himself or others before he can be Baker Act-ed,'' -- involuntarily held for a brief period for psychiatric evaluation. 

But once the person is stabilized, often he no longer is deemed a danger and must be released -- even if more treatment is needed. Otherwise, the person is sent before a judge. 

But judges -- and police -- have must deal again and again with a small group of mentally ill patients who cycle in and out of the system. The judges have only two choices: Put them in a state psychiatric hospital or release them. If the defendant becomes a danger again, he's put back on the same nonsensical treadmill. 

This is a public-safety issue. The bills put accountability where it belongs -- with the courts, medical community -- and the patient

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