Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery
By Philip Cardella 27 February 2026
Miami, FL
This week I got to do something that I thought was unique and special: I got to tour the Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery, which lies dormant, ready to open in six months.
The Miami-Dade County Jail serves as the largest psychiatric institution in Florida. It has as many beds for people with mental illnesses as all state civil and forensic mental health treatment facilities combined. A first-of-its-kind facility in the world will soon open in Miami-Dade County to help people caught in the system. It's called the Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery. When its doors open, tentatively in about six months, it will offer treatment and work to rehabilitate people with serious mental illnesses who are caught in the criminal justice system. This is the culmination of about 16 years of study and planning. CBS News
Isn't that great? The Miami Herald Editorial Board thinks so:
It makes sense. It’ll save money. For what the county currently spends in about 25 days to fund the mental health population in the jail — about $15 million — Leifman calculated the county could nearly cover the rest of the cost to run the Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery for a year. This is a worthy and important project. It will help solve one of the community’s most tenacious problems. And it will save taxpayers money. Leifman calls this a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” This May, as we think about mental health, there is hope in Miami. The Miami Herald
Here's a more detailed take on the center:
TNS
Now, compare Carl Juste's great photos of the center to mine.
These aren't a one to one comparison because I thought we were special, that we were some of the few lucky enough to see this. I didn't realize that Carl Juste took photos I could recreate this week...in 2023.
That's right, Juste and Herald reporter Michelle Marchante toured the facility in September 2023. The three stories linked above? They're all from 2023.
This thing has been sitting waiting to open for nearly three years.
When I started going through the newspaper archive to figure out why the facility remains unopened, the first thing that struck me was that Judge Leifman, who is now retired, has been giving this tour for years. The Instagram post by now former Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is from a year ago.
So what's the hold up? I'm not going to get into the theories here though I'll point out a few known things. A few powerful members of the Miami-Dade County Commission claim it is too expensive at $10m per year (against a $12b budget), despite it being ready to open and many of those costs to the county are sunk–they'll have to pay them whether or not the facility is operational. What's more, once the facility is open, Miami-Dade county jails, which are presently Florida's largest mental health institution, which the county tax payer pays for, would have the costs shift from programs ineligible for much Federal government assistance to programs that are Medicaid eligible. In other words, the Federal government would take on most of what's now being paid for by Miami-Dade residents alone.
Basically, the first three years of operating the facility are already covered.
It's complicated. I hope to write more about this soon when I understand it better. If you want to get a deeper understanding read the links above and look into it yourself. I've yet to find anyone that's not an elected Miami-Dade County official that is against this. Not one person or post.
Right now, if you're convinced this is a good thing and if you live in Miami-Dade County call your commissioner and tell them you want this facility to open.
