When new Miami center opens, arrestees with mental illness can be treated, not jailed – Sun Sentinel

This could be the year Miami-Dade County makes history, opening a center for treating and helping — instead of incarcerating — people with mental illness. It is thought to be the first of its kind in the nation.

But delay upon delay upon delay — so much bureaucracy it’s hard to blame any one thing — mean that the planned Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery is slated to open some 20 years after it first was promised.

Many of those who will be helped are chronically homeless. Most have been diagnosed with schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder. Many abuse drugs or alcohol. All of them find themselves in and out of jail, at great cost to taxpayers, after being accused of committing non-violent crimes. They’re largely invisible to society, except when they cause problems.

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