Florida Partners in Crisis

Partners Profile: Judge Steven Leifman

It was more than 30 years ago that a " young and impressionable" Steve Leifman began what has become a lifelong campaign to improve conditions for Floridians with mental illnesses.

Leifman, then a 17-year-old intern for a Florida state senator, was assigned to follow up a complaint involving a man with autism who had been admitted to Florida State Hospital.

Today, the images of that visit are still fresh in his mind.

He found the man "was chained to a bed and was being injected with psychiatric meds," said Leifman. Touring the facility, he witnessed five to six men crowded into small cage-like cells. "A guard would come by and wash them off with a hose," he recalled. "I was young and impressionable and it left an indelible mark on me."

Years later, when Leifman became an associate administrative judge in the Miami-Dade County Court Criminal Division, he found the same type of inhumane conditions faced county jail inmates with mental illnesses.

Leifman said he soon discovered there was little he could do as a county judge to get someone into treatment, that treatment resources were limited and that there was a lack of coordination between the criminal justice system and the treatment agencies.

Outspoken and passionate, Leifman became a leader in Dade County's efforts to address problems in the local courts and jail associated with mental health issues.

In July 2000, he organized a local summit to examine the way defendants with mental illnesses were being handled by law enforcement, the courts and the correctional system. The summit led to a collaborative effort to bring about reform in the Miami-Dade criminal justice system, with the goal of making jail the last resort for people with mental illnesses.

"Participants began to realize that people with untreated mental illnesses may be among the most expensive population in our society not because of their conditions, but because of the way they are treated," Leifman told a congressional committee in March 2007.

"To the extent that we continue to allow people with mental illnesses to revolve in cycles of disenfranchisement and despair, our communities will suffer. To the extent that the interventions and services offered are fragmented and do not embrace the concepts of recovery and hope, our communities will suffer," he said.

The Miami-Dade program diverts people with serious mental illnesses who commit minor, misdemeanor offenses away from the criminal justice system and into community-based care. It includes both pre-booking and post-booking jail diversion programs, bringing together the resources and services of healthcare providers, social service agencies, law enforcement personnel and the courts.

The diversion program received a 2001 Innovation Award from the Council of State Governments. In addition, Leifman and Dr. Deborah Dummitt of the Florida Department of Children and Families received a Prudential Financial Davis Productivity Award for their leadership in developing the innovative program, which saved taxpayers $2.7 million in one year.

Impressed by the program, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in 2003 awarded a $1 million-dollar, three-year grant to expand it.

Becoming a member of Partners of Crisis and one of its earliest leaders was a natural fit for Leifman. "I realized this was a state and national problem and there seemed to be no strong constituency for people with mental illnesses."

Asked to attend an early Partners in Crisis rally at the Florida Capitol, he almost missed the event when bad weather delayed his flight. After listening to the other speakers and meeting the fledgling organization's members, he said he was "hooked."

"In some ways, (Partners) was an incubator, a think tank, for me to learn more about the issues," he said.

Leifman quickly assumed a leadership role in Partners, helping it gain greater visibility and play a major role in articulating the needs of people with mental illnesses and substance use disorders for legislators and other policy makers.

The judge also took his crusade to the national level.

He regularly teaches courses to fellow judges and makes presentations around the country on the need for crisis intervention training for law enforcement officers and for programs that will divert people with mental illnesses from jail.

He also co-chairs the Judges' Criminal Justice/Mental Health Leadership Initiative, an initiative of the National GAINS Center and Council of State Governments. The group's work was endorsed in 2006 by the Conference of Chief Justices.

The project is gaining momentum, according to Leifman, and will lead to better understanding by judges of the challenges and needs of people with mental illnesses who are in the legal system, as well as greater cross-system collaboration.

Leifman's advocacy work has led to state, local and national recognition. Among his awards are the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Miami's Judicial Distinction Award and the Bank of America Local Hero Award. He also received the 2003 President's Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, the 2003 Leadership Award from Florida Partners in Crisis, and the 2003 Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of Counties

Last April, Leifman was appointed to serve as special advisor on criminal justice and mental health to Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Lewis. The appointment runs through June, 2008.

He was charged with bringing together representatives of all branches of state government to help identify and recommend ways to improve the response of both the public mental health system and the criminal justice system to people with mental illnesses.

Working through the Supreme Court's Subcommittee on Mental Health, Leifman led an in-depth study by a series of work groups representing both Florida's executive and legislative branches, the criminal and corrections justice systems, local and state agencies, health care providers, and advocacy groups. Florida Partners in Crisis Chair Judge Mark A. Speiser and Executive Director Michele Saunders were among the participants.

Their findings and recommendations for were outlined in a November 2007 report, "Mental Health: Transforming Florida's Mental Health System."

The judge has spent much of his time since the report's release championing the recommendations and lobbying legislators for the money to implement its innovative proposals. Part of his message is the role the new Criminal Justice, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Grant Program can play by providing "the infrastructure" for implementing the report's proposals.

As Leifman was winding up his remarks to the Florida Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee on January 23, Broward Senator Nan Rich commended the judge's efforts, noting his "passion and vision".

Some may question the role of judges as agents for change. Leifman eloquently addressed that issue in a 2005 interview published in the American Journal of Public Health.

"I think justice comes at many levels," Leifman said. "There is nothing more just than to be able to restore someone's competency and give them their life back and keep them out of the justice system."