Jim DeFede joined CBS4 News in January 2006 and serves as an investigative reporter for the station, as well as host of its Sunday morning public affairs program "Facing South Florida."
Miami-Dade County commissioners have failed for years to move forward on a long-promised mental health facility, drawing sharp criticism from Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski, who says it's time for action.
"They've slowed it down for several years already, and it's time to cut bait and fish," Wenski said during an interview on Facing South Florida. "It's time to approve it."
The facility, known as the Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery, was designed to divert people with mental illnesses from county jail, where they often go without treatment, and instead provide care in a dedicated facility.
The center was first promised to voters in 2004 as part of the Building Better Communities bond program.
Using bond funds, Miami-Dade County spent more than $50 million renovating a building at 2200 NW 7th Avenue. Two years ago, following a competitive process, a pair of nonprofit organizations were selected to operate the facility and provide treatment.
The seven-story, 181,000-square-foot building includes a crisis stabilization unit, residential treatment, transitional housing, outpatient services and health care. It is also equipped with a courtroom.
Funding for the first two years has already been secured.
Yet for more than a year, the building has sat empty as commissioners have repeatedly delayed final approval.
Wenski said the delay is troubling, criticizing what he described as the county "warehousing" people with mental illnesses in jail instead of providing treatment.
"It will save lives because this will allow people to get the treatment that they really need, treatment that can help stabilize them," he said.
Miami-Dade Commission Chairman Anthony Rodriguez has so far declined to place the item on the full commission agenda, instead routing it through committees.
Last month, the commission's Intergovernmental and Economic Impact Committee deferred the proposal indefinitely. The committee is co-chaired by Vicki Lopez and Natalie Milian Orbis and includes commissioners Danielle Cohen Higgins, Roberto Gonzalez and Rene Garcia.
Some commissioners have raised concerns about long-term funding, questioning whether the center will ultimately save money and how it would be financed beyond the first few years.
But other factors may also be at play.
As previously reported by The Miami Herald and CBS Miami, a for-profit company submitted a proposal last fall to take over the building. The company, Recovery Solutions, formerly part of the GEO Group, proposed a model that would cost more and serve fewer people than the plan developed by Judge Steve Leifman.
Leifman, who has worked on mental health reform for more than two decades, has been the driving force behind the center and Miami-Dade's jail diversion program. He frequently gives tours of the empty building to officials from around the country looking to replicate the model.
Despite national interest, the project has yet to receive final approval in its home county.
Currently, many people with mental illnesses in Miami-Dade are arrested for low-level offenses such as homelessness or minor drug charges. They often spend weeks or months in jail, are released without adequate treatment, and then quickly cycle back into the system.
The pattern repeats itself so often that Leifman has identified about 1,000 individuals who are repeatedly arrested and jailed.
The five most frequently arrested individuals alone were taken into custody 142 times over the past five years, spending nearly 4,000 combined days in jail.
Advocates say the system is not only inefficient but inhumane.
"This is not just an insane system, it is a cruel one," critics argue.
Wenski said the proposed center would not only reduce costs but also restore dignity and serve what he called "the common good."
"If somebody has a heart attack walking down the street, they call an ambulance and take them to a hospital," Wenski said. "But if you have a mental health crisis, they call the cops and take you to jail, which is not a very efficient way of treating a health crisis."