Nearly every leader in Polk County’s behavioral health community stood behind Sheriff Grady Judd on Wednesday afternoon as they announced a new program that will provide complete wraparound counseling and substance abuse services to current and former Polk County Jail inmates in an effort to address the mental health crisis in the community.
“We can’t wait on the White House in Washington, D.C., or the state house in Tallahassee to make a positive difference,” Judd said. “We’re taking the resources we have locally and our goal is to set the model and the mold and the trend for not only this community, this county, but for the state and the nation. And it all starts with working together.”
The program is unprecedented in Polk County. In all, 16 agencies will work together to make sure inmates receive counseling and medication while incarcerated, and then follow-up services upon release. Judd said there are discussion to offer rehabilitation services, rather than jail, for addicts in a revolving door of substance abuse and incarceration.
Why it matters
- Many people with mental illness end up in the criminal justice system.
- Treating people is less expensive than incarcerating them and can lower crime rates in the community.
- While people are incarcerated, barriers such as lack of transportation don’t exist.
- Not treating people with mental illness can have tragic consequences.
No barriers exist in jail
For many people with mental health challenges, accessing services can be difficult. Getting an initial appointment requires knowing which agency or service to contact, doing paperwork, providing insurance information, and sometimes waiting for weeks or months to be seen. Physically getting to appointments can be difficult.
“The barriers that we frequently hear about are transportation, program waiting lists, legal identification — none of those barriers exist in the county jail, none of them,” Judd said. “We have a significant population that we can do more to help. And we are. There are no barriers in jail and if we do what we can do for those that are in jail — I like to think of them as a ‘captive audience’ — then we can move forward from that and also provide services for them in the community.”
The program will allow the different agencies to talk to one another about a patient’s care once the patient signs a universal waiver. So, if a former inmate is treated by paramedics one day, but then goes to Peace River Center a week later, and visits the Polk County Health Department the next month, those agencies can collaborate and share information regarding their care through the community team.
Rebranding and expanding an existing program
County officials are rebranding and reorganizing their longtime Jail Alternatives to Substance Abuse program to the newly minted “Substance Treatment Advocacy Recovery and Reentry Program ” or STARR. The organizers envision more collaboration, better communication, better decision-making, improved productivity, and the potential for more innovation.
It merges the strengths of the JASA program, which is provided by Tri-County Human Services, and the Helping HANDS program, funded by the Polk County Board of County Commissioners’ Health and Human Services Division. It is already being used at the South County Jail in Frostproof.
Helping HANDS is a program unique to Polk County. The “Healthcare: Access, Navigation, Delivery and Support” focuses on Polk County inmates returning to the community from jail who have had two or more arrests in the previous 12 months and are receiving psychotropic medications while in jail. Referrals to the program come from the jail or via the community partner agencies. County workers check on the inmate once released to ensure they have needed medications.
STARR focuses on individuals in need of substance-use disorder treatment, who seek to live a life of recovery. Before their release from jail, inmates take part in group and individual treatment. Plans for successful reentry and support upon release are then offered. The program will be expanded through a phased-approach to reach inmates in other parts of the jail system.
“We all probably know of someone cycling in and out of institutions due to their struggles with behavioral health conditions and in need of specialized help and treatment,” said Polk County Commission Chairman Bill Braswell. “The collaborative partnership further demonstrates how public, private, and non-profit organizations can align efforts to improve the quality of life for our residents, which is Polk County’s mission.”
New and updated services
There are several components to the new and updated services.
The Helping HANDS program is being expanded to include Polk County Fire Rescue Community Paramedics. They will meet with inmates prior to their release from jail and for up to six weeks after release to ensure the former inmate connects with a local psychologist, psychiatrist or licensed mental health counselor, and that they have needed medications.
“The goal is to have the (paramedics) meet participants in their homes within 48 hours of release to deliver a 30-day supply of all medications and provide an overall health review,” a press release states.
Peer counseling training and services are being offered through the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Florida. Inmates will be will provided with the 40-hours of training necessary to take the next step of Peer Specialist Training through the state of Florida. This training gives the individuals a potential future career path, as the training is good for 10 years, but also introduces them to the language of recovery at the same time.
In addition, Heart for Winter Haven will provide a program called “Mental Health First Aid.” This training will be begin with STARR participants, “allowing them to be a part of something we will eventually offer to the entire jail,” officials said, adding that it “will be a force multiplier in our community, but also in our jail – providing additional opportunities to address issues before they reach a point of crisis.”
Heartland for Children and Neighbors to Family are hosting a fatherhood engagement program to help teach men how to be better fathers. Although some participants may not be a parent, they can learn skills that will help them be strong role models for others and prepare them for parenthood if/when that occurs.
Recidivism reduction programs
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office has provided prevention and recidivism reduction programs in both the Central County Jail in Bartow and the South County Jail in Frostproof, including :
- Helping HANDS — mental health services
- Weekly religious worship services
- Pastoral visitation
- One-on-one mentoring
- Faith-based dorms, which offer a faith-based curriculum, mentoring, Bible teaching and worship service
- Narcotics Anonymous
- Alcoholics Anonymous
- JASA — Jail Alternatives to Substance Abuse
- Polk County Jail mental health housing unit
- PCSO Jail medical mental health services
- Post-jail coordinated follow up with inmates with mental health medications
Other jail program designed to help inmates include: GED preparation courses, educational television, Family Integrity Training (parenting, economics, relationships, decision making, personal integrity, and anger management), job readiness programs, road to re-entry program, CPR certification program, culinary certification program, KNOT Your Average Academy (hair braiding and business course), and Trusty/Inmate Work Program (earn certifications in various trades/labor categories).
Impetus for change
Judd cited as his impetus for the new program his work on the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Committee, formed after a teenaged gunman murdered 14 students and three staff members at the Parkland, Florida, high school. Judd saw that the gunman had received years of mental health counseling, that he received special services and accommodations at school for mental health issues, and had interacted with law enforcement multiple times. But the agencies, police officials and school system didn’t work with each other because, by law, a person’s health history can’t be shared.
In addition, he has long pointed to advice from his family doctor, the late Dr. Thomas McMicken, who was chairman of an advisory committee on the half-cent sales tax for medical services, and was on the sheriff’s advisory council.
“He said, ‘We think we can do more with mental health services in the jail,’ and I said Dr. McMicken, I can only dream about that. That’s what we’ve always wanted,” Judd recalled at a press conference Wednesday. “And that’s where Helping HANDS started.”
Judd said once inmates return to society, the STARR program will help them stay on the medication and keep them in counseling.
“They’ll live a healthier life, they’ll live a happier life. They will hopefully live a crime-free life,” he said.
Polk County Sheriff’s Office Communications Director Scott Wilder said, initially, juveniles will not a part of this program.
“Typically, most juveniles are not there that long to benefit from programming like this,” Wilder said. “Juveniles primarily are the responsibility of state Department of Juvenile Justice — when they get sentenced, there is theoretically appropriate programming for them.”
LkldNow reporter Kimberly Moore wrote an in-depth story on the “Sad State” of mental health in Florida in 2021 while working at The Ledger. Read the entire series here.
Shortages of beds and providers
The Polk County Jail is the largest provider of mental health services in the county and the same can be said of all 67 counties in Florida. But, because of federal laws, mentally ill people cannot be forced to receive treatment or take medication.
As of Wednesday, there were 2,661 inmates at the Central and South County Jail facilities. Of those 77 are housed as “Mental Health Unit” inmate and 660 inmates have at least one drug charge.
A 2021 report from Polk Vision showed a pressing need for more providers in Polk County. The ratio of the population to mental health providers in Polk is 1,190 to 1. Florida is 670 to 1. The national benchmark is 310 to 1.
As of 2023, 1 in 7 state psychiatric hospital beds was closed due to staffing shortages across 33 states.
According to a 2023 TAC report, Florida ranks number 21 among the 50 states in beds per 100,000 people and number 25 in percentage of beds occupied by criminal patients.
The report further states that Florida has 1,108 state hospital beds, 44%, of which are designated for criminal patients.
Florida’s state hospitals for mental illness are:
- Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee – operated by DCF. Has 615 beds for civil patients
- Northeast Florida State Hospital in Macclenny. Operated by DCF and has 615 beds for civil patients.
- North Florida Evaluation and Treatment Center in Gainesville. Operated by DCF and has 193 beds for forensic patients.
- South Florida State Hospital in Pembroke Pines. Operated by Wellpath Recovery solutions and has 311 beds for civil patients.
- South Florida Evaluation and Treatment Center in Florida City. Operated by Wellpath Recovery Solutions and has 238 beds for forensic patients.
- Treasure Coast Forensic Treatment Center in Indiantown. Operated by Wellpath Recovery Solutions and has 208 beds for forensic patients.
“Forensic bed waits remain an issue, with significant and sometimes tragic consequences,” the report reads.
In 2022, Lakeland Regional Health opened the $46 million Harrell Family Center for Behavioral Health, an 80,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art facility with 96 beds — eight units with 12 beds each, including a 12-bed unit for juveniles as young as 10 years old.
Practitioners offer outpatient group therapy, including intensive outpatient, partial hospitalization, various community programs, group services for inpatient and telehealth medicine for those who can’t travel to the facility.
Alice Nuttall, LRHMC associate vice president of behavioral health services, said the expanded services under STARR are inspirational.
“There’s a lot more communication amongst partners, and we feel like (it’s a) true change for our community, increasing access to services, which has been the mission and vision of Lakeland Regional,” Nuttall said. “These individuals that are family members and neighbors, they cycle through multiple different treatment facilities. They may one day be at one hospital, one counseling center, that sort of thing. And so we, through a shared (memorandum of understanding) and release are able to share that good information that truly helps. It as a benefit to that individual so that they don’t have to repeat the same cycle, whether it be addiction or mental health issues. So we’re very supportive of this work.”
Mental illness and crime
Unfortunately, some mental illnesses and substance abuse issues can lead to crime, although experts caution that those with a mental illness are more likely to be a victim of crime than to perpetrate one.
But in recent years, people with mental illnesses have committed some of Polk County’s most serious crimes:
Marcelle Jerill Waldon was convicted last month of murdering David and Edie Yates Henderson in their Lake Morton Drive home in 2020. His sister and ex-girlfriend has told a LkldNow reporter that he has been hearing voices for decades. His mental illness was not brought up during his trial or the sentencing phase, although Judge Kevin Abdoney asked him if he were hearing voices when Waldon declined to present any witnesses during sentencing. Waldon replied no.
On May 13, 2021 Polk County Jail inmate John Ward Smith was being held in a mental health unit cell in Frostproof, on suicide watch, when investigators say he repeatedly stomped on the head of fellow inmate Shaun Seaman, 39, who died more than a week later from his injuries. Smith remains in the Polk County jail, awaiting trial.
Bryan James Riley was arrested for killing four family members in their North Socrum Loop homes in September 2021. Officials said he had false delusions of a child sex-trafficking operation in the home, which led to his rampage. He also tortured and shot an 11-year-old girl. He had no connection to the victims: Justice Gleason, 40, his girlfriend Theresa Lanham, 33, the couple’s 3-month-old son, and Lanham’s mother, 62-year-old Cathy Delgado. Riley’s trial is currently scheduled for May 2025.
Stephen Thomas Rodda, 37, is accused of killing his 16-year-old son, Stephen Lee Rodda, a junior at Frostprrof Junior-Senior High, It happened in a home on Old Bartow Road in Lake Wales on Labor Day, September 4, 2023. The older Rodda was taken into custody shortly after committing the murder. Judd said Stephen Rodda was a meth addict who had psychotic episodes.
Brandy Hutchins, 43, murdered her 10-year-old son, Aiden Hutchins and his 19-year-old sister, Hannah Griner, in August during a custody dispute near Lake Wales. Hutchins then shot herself.
Success story
Denise Harrison is a community program coordinator and a certified recovery specialist for Tri-County Human Services, an agency that “provides help and hope” to everyone affected by behavioral health, substance use, and other life challenges.
Harrison spends her days overseeing substance abuse treatment programs inside the Polk County Jail. The agency also provides individual therapy and psycho-educational behavior modification.
“All of our participants have a treatment plan, goals they want to accomplish,” Harrison said, who leads a group counseling session every Friday.
But once upon a time, Harrison was sitting on the other side of the jail bars. As a 16-year-old in 1990, she tried methamphetamine for the first time.
“Instantly, I was prettier and smarter and I had all this energy and I could go and do and it would be fine,” Harrison told LkldNow. “And that’s the thing that I think kids miss out on in drug abuse education, that it is fun in the beginning. But it goes from wanting to, to having to and it doesn’t ask your permission first. So you get caught up.”
Over the course of 12 years, she became an addict, then a drug dealer and an inmate.
Her drug use became so bad that, following the burglary of her house, she left her son with relatives for safekeeping. When she went to pick him up at school, DCF officials were waiting for her.
“My low point was when DCF said I was not fit to raise my child,” Harrison said. “In my mind, understand this, I was taking care of him. He wasn’t hungry. We lived in nice houses and we had nice cars. He wore brand-name clothes. So I was taking care of my son. You got to understand, it was warped, you know, but in my mind, I was … when I showed up at the schoolhouse to pick him up, they had DCF … Nothing mattered other than to prove my income, which I couldn’t do.”
She uses dark humor now to say that she was “in sales and distribution,” but at the time, losing her son broke her heart. She had driven away her family and then lost her child.
“Some people have damaged the relationships with their family to such a degree that families have to step away,” she said. “And what I try to explain to the guys in the jail is it hurts to love an addict. And that’s self-preservation. You can’t be angry with your family that they don’t want you to hurt them anymore. My experience is that once you get clean and sober and you start becoming a productive member of society, your family comes back. Your family wants you in their lives. They just can’t deal with all the chaos.”
Harrison said the people with addiction issues could be anyone — your neighbor, your co-worker, your friend.
“We just want to make sure that they blend back into society and have some self-worth or value, regardless of what they’ve done in the past,” Harrison said. “There’s a reason why they survived. There’s a reason why they’re here. So we like to take them from who they think they are to who they’re meant to be.”
Harrison said her family decided to try one more time with her and had her Marchman Acted, a legal tool that can be used to involuntarily send someone to a substance abuse program for a few days. She finally successfully walked away from drugs. But, she cautions, her fight against drugs will never be over.
“Recovery is a life-long journey,” she said. “By the grace of God, I’ve been able to put a few 24 hours together. But I think the moment that I tucked my son in his bed for the first time (after recovery), I could feel my soul come back into my body. In that moment, I was willing to do anything and be anything I could so I could break this cycle with my son and he would not have to face the things that an addiction brings.”
Partner organizations involved in STARR:
- Polk County Sheriff’s Office
- Polk County Health and Human Services Division (Polk County Board of County Commissioners)
- Polk County Fire Rescue
- YesCare
- Tri-County Human Services, Inc.
- Winter Haven Hospital Center for Behavioral Health (BayCare)
- Lakeland Regional Health
- Peace River Center
- Narcotics Anonymous
- NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) –FL
- Heartland for Children
- Neighbor to Family, Inc.
- Heart for Winter Haven
- Florida Department of Corrections
- Cove Behavioral Health
- Polk County Probation, Polk County Court Services
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Yes, I am a mother of a client in the program. And for everything it has done for my son, I am grateful. There is a slight flaw in the program that wouldn’t probably be a flaw if we lived in a world where everyone works the same hours. However since it is not a perfect world, the flaw comes in when a night worker gets off at 1am gets home and gets dinner, eats, cleans up and then sleeps and has to be at the courthouse for a urine test at 9am and cannot go so has to drink water so he can go, because he is violated if he cannot go within a certain time of checking in, and so he can literally get back home and get some form of sleep so that he can go back into work at 2pm. His test is diluted, and yet…. the day before was negative, the day after is negative but we are violating him due to a diluted test in between 2 negative result days. So instead of informing of the diluted day to come back and retest, you just violate then add more days of probation, more days of paying for transportation and fuel, more days of jail time, more days of money related activities that puts a financial stress of job and utilities in order to pay the courts. Like I said, I am truly grateful for where he has came because of the program, but now it is becoming a financial and stressful continuance at this point, when all that needed to be done, is a phone call to come and retest a few hours later.