On Friday evening, the Florida Legislature formally passed the Tristin Murphy Act, the most comprehensive reform to mental health inside the criminal justice system in decades.
Murphy, a 37-year-old schizophrenic, had been in and out of jail for years because of his mental illness, without ever receiving the treatment or long-term care he needed. Murphy’s final arrest came when he allowed his pickup truck to roll into a pond near the Charlotte County Jail. Prosecutors charged him with littering, and because of the weight of the truck, it was deemed a third-degree felony. Arguing he had no other recourse, a judge sentenced him to three years in prison.
On September 16, 2021, a month after arriving at the South Florida prison to begin serving his sentence, Murphy killed himself at the facility with a chainsaw.
Murphy’s story was chronicled in the 2023 CBS Miami documentary, “Warehoused: The Life and Death of Tristin Murphy.”
The Tristin Murphy Act will stress treatment, rather than incarceration, for non-violent offenders with serious mental illnesses. The bill will also make mental health treatment and follow-up care a condition of probation or release – an option the judge in the Tristin Murphy case said he did not have.
After passing the Senate last month, the House took up the bill and passed it unanimously Friday evening. The bill is now headed to the Governor’s desk for his signature.
“Today we turn a wrong into a right. We shift from incarceration to treatment and from handcuffs to humanity,” said the House sponsor of the bill, State Representative Nan Cobb, a Republican from Eustis. “Mr. and Mrs. Murphy, I know you’re watching. Please know that your son Tristin didn’t die in vain. He has changed the course and lives of individuals who suffer from mental illness. My promise to you and Tristin’s sons is to continue to make this bill even better in the future. He will not be forgotten.”
Cindee Murphy broke down in tears as the House voted. She had travelled to Tallahassee to meet with lawmakers over the past two years, arguing she didn’t want what happened to her son to happen to anyone else.
In a statement to CBS Miami Friday evening, she wrote: “Dennis and I are thrilled that the Tristin Murphy Act passed the Legislature. There were so many people who worked so hard on this bill, and we’re so grateful for everyone’s effort.”
“We hope that this will make a real difference in how people with mental illness are treated when they find themselves caught up in the criminal justice system,” she continued. “We look forward to even more improvements being made in mental health care and the criminal justice system in the years to come. Let this be a beginning, not an end.”
The documentary about Tristin’s case caught the attention of legislators, most notably Senate President Ben Albritton, who made mental health reform among his top priorities this year.
“Humanity gets the credit for this,” Albritton said last month when the Senate voted unanimously to pass the bill, “not any individual, because this bill will save lives. It’s going to change the trajectory for people in Florida who don’t even know it yet. It’s going to make our system stronger.”
“The tragedy of Tristin is a painful reminder of what each of us knows to be true, and that is that the intersection between mental health and our criminal justice system is a very dangerous place for people to be,” offered the Senate sponsor of the bill, Senator Jennifer Bradley. “Jails and prisons in Florida struggle with how to manage our mentally ill population, which is where most of our mentally ill are now. For the acutely mentally ill, the cycle is jail, a forensic hospital, living on the street, and inevitably re-arrest. And this bill will break that cycle. And it will focus our resources on treatment, long-term recovery, and stability.”
The bill significantly expands a program that has been in effect in Miami-Dade County for years and provides more resources across the state.
Both the Senate President and Bradley stressed that this bill will make communities safer.
“There may be some that read this bill and hear this testimony, and they might think it is soft on crime,” Albritton said. “I say it’s strong on crime, but it is stronger on common sense.”
“This bill will provide hope, it will save lives, and more importantly, or just as importantly, this is a bill for public safety,” Bradley added. “Getting treatment and long-term stability for these individuals is a public safety bill.”
