A closer look at a Florida lawsuit concerning the rights of prisoners living with mental illness
Elizabeth Pizzo was terrified earlier this year of what would happen to her son.
"Honestly, I was afraid I was going to have to bury my kid," she said. "I cried and I prayed. It was awful. I didn't know what to do. I really felt helpless."
Starting in 2024, her son Phillip, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and has struggled with mental health issues for most of his life, stopped taking his medication and had a series of minor run-ins with the law, including a charge that he attempted to assault a police officer.
Last fall, for the second time in less than a year, a judge determined he was "incompetent to proceed" and ordered the state to transfer him to a state hospital for treatment. Under Florida law, that transfer was supposed to happen within 15 days. But despite two separate judges in two different counties finding Phillip in need of immediate help, he languished.