Author and mental health advocate Pete Earley will speak in Fort Myers Friday. For his 2007 Pulitzer Prize-nominated book “Crazy,” he followed mentally ill inmates for a year through the Miami-Dade prison system.

Earley, a former Washington Post reporter, began advocating for mental health issues after struggling to get help for his then college-age son with bi-polar disorder. His son had been arrested and put in jail.

Earley realized that this was not unique to his son. He says people who are mentally ill are almost four times more likely to be in the prison system than in treatment.

“If you have a mental illness in Florida, you shouldn’t have to get arrested to get help,” said Earley.

“We’ve kind of turned the mental health system into a criminal justice one – and that is wrong.”

Earley will be speaking at the Broadway Palm Dinner Theater on Friday, October 7^th. It is a fundraiser to benefit Hope Clubhouse, a local center for people living with mental illness.