One Size Doesn’t Fit All - The Struggle to Divert People with Mental Disabilities from the Criminal Justice System

Judge Steve Leifman

This week Elizabeth Kelley talks with her guest Judge Steve Leifman. The two discuss the journey to redesign the system to identify and treat mental disabilities with the goal of keeping them out of the criminal justice system. 

In this episode, we discuss:

• How Judge Leifman became involved in criminal justice for the mentally disabled
• The historical and cultural progression of the incarceration and treatment of those suffering from mental disabilities became culturally accepted
• The development and impact of the pre-and post-arrest aversion system in Miami-Dade County
• The role and treatment of PTSD in law enforcement shootings
• The criteria of competency in the legal system
• Restoration of competency and the legal system - its meaning, the process, its impact
• Why mental disability is not a risk factor for criminal activity
• What should a family do if a loved one suffering from a mental disability is charge with a crime

Judge Steve Leifman is the Associate Administrative Judge of the Miami-Dade County Court Criminal Division. He previously served as Special Advisor on Criminal Justice and Mental Health for the Supreme Court of Florida and currently chairs the Florida Supreme Court’s Steering Committee on Problem Solving Courts. He is the co-chair of the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Mental Health Committee and co-chair of the Judges and Psychiatrists Leadership Initiative. He serves on the Florida Statewide Task Force on Opioid Abuse, the Florida Drug Policy Advisory Council, and the National Institute on Drug Addiction’s (NIDA) Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network. Judge Leifman is a member of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP), a Lecturer in Psychiatry at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and a Voluntary Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Miami School of Medicine. Judge Leifman was appointed to serve on the Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators National Judicial Task Force to Examine State Courts' Response to Mental Illness and the Interdepartmental Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee (ISMICC) established by the 21st Century Cures Act.  

In 2015, Judge Leifman received the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence. One of the nation’s highest judicial honors presented by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., the Rehnquist Award is presented annually to a state court judge who exemplifies judicial excellence, integrity, fairness, and professional ethics. Judge Leifman is also the first recipient to receive the Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Award for Judicial Excellence (2015). He was named a 2016 Governing Magazine Public Official of the Year. More recently, Judge Leifman was awarded the 2020 Dade County Bar Association (DCBA) David W. Dyer Professionalism Award, the 2018 Pardes Humanitarian Prize in Mental Health, the 2019 Yale-NAMI Mental Health Advocacy Award and a 2019 Presidential Commendation by the American Psychiatric Association. He has authored and published numerous articles and has been featured in many national and local television programs, radio programs, and articles regarding mental health and the criminal justice system. His most recent co-authored article was published in the Atlantic Magazine on May 30, 2022. Judge Leifman is the subject of the Documentary, The Definition of Insanity which aired nationally on PBS on April 14, 2020 - https://doifilm.com/