Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bruce Bartlett pushed to create a new mental health court in the Sixth Judicial Circuit that is expected to be up and running this fall.

“I ended up talking to our Chief Judge Tony Rondolino about the possibility of being able to add that as a third tier in our special court system,” said Bartlett. “So, it would be a drug court, veterans’ court and mental health court.” 

Bartlett talked to Spectrum News about the new court and agreed to give his first on-camera interview as the Pinellas-Pasco state attorney.  

“There are people who just because of their mental health, issues repeatedly reappear,” he said. “Often, law enforcement is left with no other option other than to arrest that individual. Then it becomes a problem for the courts.” 

Bartlett hopes the mental health court will help cut down on those repeat offenders, charged with low-level crimes, by providing them up to one year of free treatment. Only defendants facing a third degree felony or fewer that’s a non-violent offense will qualify for the diversion program, according to Bartlett.

“It may be a PTI (Pretrial Services) situation where they successfully complete and they drop charges,” he said. “If it’s a situation where it’s not necessarily PTI eligible but will be eligible for probation, then they would have a probationary period and if they were successful, then the charges would be closed at that point.”​

Defense attorney Lucas Fleming said he approached Bartlett in May 2021, about creating the new system after seeing how Hillsborough County, which has had a mental health court since 2017, handled his client’s case.

“I was really impressed with what they did in Hillsborough County,” Fleming said. “Judge Ficarrotta does a great job running that court and so I thought it would be a wonderful addition to Pinellas County.”​

In 2019, Judge Ronald Ficarrotta established the first Juvenile Mental Health Court in Florida. Last October, Governor Ron DeSantis appointed Chief Judge Ficarrotta to the Commission on Mental Health and Substance Abuse.​

“Florida’s jails and prisons are not equipped or designed to deal with serious mental illness,” said Chief Judge Ficarrotta. “So, the use of the proven problem-solving court model is a logical response to addressing mental health needs in our courts.”​

Bartlett said they used some of the Hillsborough model.

“Quite frankly, Hillsborough County had a very effective, successfully working mental health court, and we used a lot of the different guidelines that they had imposed,” he said. “And made our own modifications to suit it to what we want to do, but I think they deserve some credit in how we guide lined ours to establish it.”

Pinellas County was awarded a $550,000 grant from the Justice Department to help create the new court. The money will pay for 40 defendants to receive treatment each year. Fleming believes that free support will make the biggest difference.

“Mental health is very expensive. It just takes a lot of money to support treatment medically, therapeutically and people just don’t have that kind of money consistently over a period of years,” he said. “I think through this mental health court, they will stay with individuals.”​

Court administration will keep a close eye on the data generated by the new court, and a case manager from Bartlett’s office will screen applicants.

“The primary screening portion of the whole process is the most important,” said Bartlett. “So, that you have one individual making decisions as to who is going to be going into the mental health court and who is not. So, there’s consistency.” ​

The new mental health court is expected to hear cases in October. Judge Philip Federico has been assigned to preside over the cases.