Ruling on Mentally Ill Favors Florida

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A judge who threatened to drop a mentally ill inmate at the office of the chief of a state agency if the inmate was not moved to a hospital did not have the authority to make such an order, a court ruled.

The ruling in favor of the Florida Department of Children and Families came in a 6-page opinion from the 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee and was issued Thursday.

State law requires inmates found to be mentally incompetent to be transferred within 15 days to a state hospital. But DCF Secretary Luci Hadi said the agency could not follow the law because all of its mental hospitals were full and it had no money to provide more beds.

"While we understand the frustration of the trial court in its inability to properly place the respondent in question, we find the trial court was not authorized to issue its order," the ruling said.

Another judge previously threatened to jail and fine Hadi if her agency did not remove inmates from the Pinellas County Jail. The DCF is also appealing that case.