Measure would overhaul forensic mental health system.

Miami-Dade County Judge Steve Leifman joked he was getting "old and gray" waiting for Florida to pass legislation to overhaul mental health services in the criminal justice system, where jails have become the largest, most expensive, and least effective psychiatric facilities.

Now in the eighth year of trying to revamp what he calls an antiquated, fragmented mental health system, Leifman said he is "cautiously optimistic" that the 2016 upcoming legislative session will pass HB 439, sponsored by Rep. Charles McBurney, R-Jacksonville, and chair of the House Judiciary Committee; and the similar SB 604, co-sponsored by Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Travis Hutson, R-Palm Coast.

On November 17, both bills passed unanimously out of the respective House Criminal Justice Subcommittee and the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"On behalf of myself as a judge, I want to applaud the really great work that Chair McBurney has put in on this important issue," Fourth Circuit Chief Judge Mark Mahon testified at the House subcommittee. "The mental health people are overwhelming the court system, and it's a solution whose time has come."

Many would say the time is long overdue.

In the 2015 session, the bill to overhaul Florida's forensic mental health system --that included about half of the issues raised by the Supreme Court Task Force on Substance Abuse and Mental Health Issues in the Courts--gained tremendous momentum and bi-partisan support, only to die during budget negotiations.

"Medicaid expansion blew everything up," Leifman said. "At least we don't have that going against us this year."

This time around, Leifman said, while there are a "few little issues to resolve," overall it is "a terrific piece of legislation. It's broader than just creating mental health courts. It helps us get to larger issues facing the budget with mental health issues in Florida. One of the problems that we have had is Florida spends 22 percent of its adult mental health budget on 1,600 people a year."

In introducing his bill, McBurney said it springs from a Judiciary Committee workshop last year that showed "persons with mental health issues, particularly with serious mental health issues, were overwhelming the criminal justice system. As a result, we brought in stakeholders from the criminal justice system to come and give their suggestions. We had sheriffs, state attorneys, public defenders, correctional officers...