Mentally ill in court

Re Fred Grimm’s Oct. 11 column, Broward’s mentally ill defendants lost in a Kafka-like court system: Our legal system too often is ill prepared to deal with people who suffer from a severe mental illness, leaving this vulnerable population at a huge disadvantage as they try to navigate through the already-complicated court system.

Many of these inmates are convicted of minor crimes, but they do not have the resources to adequately defend themselves. Instead they enter a prison system that lacks the resources or training to treat them effectively, creating a cycle of repeated imprisonment that often cannot be broken.

We need to connect individuals to treatment to improve outcomes for offenders with mental illness.

This story was originally published October 17, 2015 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Mentally ill in court."