In 1963, President Kennedy signed a bold vision into law: close the overcrowded state hospitals and bring mental health care back into communities. It was a promising beginning — and then the money never came.
Sixty years later, in Abilene, Texas, police officers are answering thousands of calls a year that have nothing to do with crime. A son is hearing voices. A daughter is in a darkness her parents don't understand. And there is no one else to call.
Episode One of “Minds on Trial” takes you inside a crisis hiding in plain sight. From the infamous "Forgotten Floor" of Miami-Dade County Jail, where three of nine floors once housed people with serious mental illness, to the wide-open frontier counties of West Texas, where the nearest crisis center might be hours away, we trace how America chose its criminal justice system over its healthcare system, and what that choice has cost.
Experts featured in this episode include:
● Judge Steve Leifman — 30+ years on the bench in Miami-Dade, now one of the country's foremost advocates for mental health justice reform
● Professor Brian Shannon — Texas Tech University, three decades studying mental health law and the gaps that swallow people whole
● Dr. Andy Keller — President & CEO of the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, who has dedicated his career to building systems that get ahead of a crisis instead of reacting to one