The Florida legislature is trying to reform how a state agency involuntarily commits people with disabilities who commit crimes.
A federal appeals court found last fall the program under the Florida Agency for Persons with Disabilities has no adequate review process. That means none of the roughly two thousand people who have been committed have ever been released.
The court case began with a Lee County man identified as “J.R.” J.R. has a 56 IQ and functions as a seven-year-old.
In 2000, he was charged with sexual battery, found incompetent to stand trial and involuntary committed to a program under the Agency for Persons with Disabilities. His order into the program had no end date.
J.R. has lived in residences like groups homes under this program.
Cassandra Capobianco is an attorney with Florida Institutional Legal Services. The group represents J.R. She said his freedom of movement is restricted.
“If he were to leave that placement, the police would be called to bring him back or he had to be back in the group home by 10 p.m. He had to earn the right to leave and when he did leave, he had to tell the staff where he was going and when he would come back and he could lose his right of being able to leave when he needed to,” she said.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals found it was unconstitutional that APD did not have an adequate review process to see if someone like JR should at some point be released from the program.
Capobianco said this ruling is also important for individuals living in fully secured housing.
Melanie Etters with APD said the agency is working to address the issues the court raised. She said for most, their lives won’t change whether or not the order is removed.
“Most of these individuals are living either in a group home or they’re living in their own apartment. The Agency for Persons with Disabilities funds services to individuals with developmental disabilities. We provide a full array of services so these people can live and participate in the local community,” she said.
There are several bills moving through the legislature to create an annual review for the program. That review would see if people with developmental disabilities who are caught up in the criminal justice system are no longer likely to harm themselves or others. One bill sponsored by state Rep. John Wood, R-Winter Haven, could be voted on by the entire House soon.
Read the ruling below:
