http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/system-at-loss-for-solutions-to-multiple-time-204649.htmlPEMBROKE PINES — It's his name that catches your eye.
Johnny B. Goode.
"Maybe some day your name will be in lights," the 1958 song goes.
Johnathan Bartholomew Goode's name doesn't appear on any marquee, but instead in the blotter at the Palm Beach County Jail. Forty-nine times in the 40 months from March 2006 to July 2009.
All 49 are misdemeanors, most for trespassing, or disorderly conduct, usually because Goode asked for money or food or gave someone lip.
For every five days, three were spent out in the world and two in jail.
He's racked up at least $12,000 in court costs. He has no money.
But rather than having him sit in jail, the system kept spitting him out.
"What do you do with someone like him?" Jill Richstone, chief of the felony division for the Palm Beach County State Attorney, says. "Jails are not meant to be mental facilities."
And while Johnny managed to land in the Geo Care South Florida State Hospital here last fall, criminal justice and mental health officials say what's needed is a better alternative for such repeat offenders — short of throwing them in jail, throwing them back on the street, or using the draconian measure of long-term commitment.
And how much are people like Johnny Goode responsible for their plight?
In Johnny's case, his mental illness and addictions are aggravated by what became a cruel cycle: Given up by his too-young dysfunctional parents, he became a dysfunctional adult who couldn't stay on his medication, couldn't hold a job, couldn't save his own marriage and doesn't know his own child.
"There's a whole host of characters where the system sees them again and again," says Brenda Nieves, a mental health jail diversion specialist for the Palm Beach County courts.
"People say, 'C'mon. We're already doing all we can for you,' " she adds. "Whether that's a correct opinion; that's open to debate."
Never asked a judge for help
Other names appear as frequently in the blotter. Some are "chronics;" street people who don't mind a clean bed and a full plate, if only for a night before a judge springs them back into their world of despair.
But not Johnny. He has schizoaffective disorder" — a combination of schizophrenia and mood disorder.
And Johnny has a "dual-diagnosis:" mental illness and addiction.
Judges ordered mental evaluations in only five of his 49 arrests. But none of the sealed results led to commitment.
Johnny admits never asking a judge for help.
So most gave time served, from 48 days down to two times he got out the same day. Once, he left and was back four hours later.
The average: 12 days.
Now in state mental hospital
A 35-year-old with a sad smile, Goode sat recently, hands in the pockets of a cloth jacket, its hood framing a beard and scraggly blond hair.
He's been mostly homeless since 2004.
He's laid tile, landscaped, and been a prep cook at a McDonald's, always for brief stints.
He's now at the South Florida State Hospital here, southwest of Fort Lauderdale.
Court papers suggest it wasn't the system, but rather Johnny who probably saved his own life.
When he voluntarily sought help in September, it was his seventh admission in nine months and his third in a week.
"He is deteriorating daily," a psychiatrist wrote. "Worried he'll neglect or hurt self irretrievably or even kill self."
Six days later, a judge ordered him to the state hospital for six months.
"I didn't want it," Goode said. "But I kind of knew it was coming.
"It's scary at night, sleeping in the woods, or on the side of the road, or in an abandoned house," he said. "I don't like looking through trash cans to eat... "
But, he admitted, as soon as he leaves jail, he usually stops taking his medication. And starts drinking or doing drugs.
Most of Johnny's 49 arrests occurred in a box that seems to mark his world: Military Trail from Southern Boulevard to Lake Worth Road.
'Waiting for something bad to happen'
In March 2006, that's where his 40-month streak in Palm Beach County began.
He cashed a stolen check for $211 to buy crack. Made a homophobic slur at a female deputy. Grabbed a customer's shoulder. Pounded on bathroom walls at a McDonald's. Sat down and screamed in the lobby of a Wal-Mart. Walked naked outside a strip mall. Urinated on the floor of a beauty salon. Stripped to his boxers in a restaurant.
In Palm Springs, with 17 of the 49 arrests, for every arrest there were at least three occasions when police could have booked him but didn’t, Sgt. Juan Castro said.
He said police often offered to take Johnny to an outreach program that offered free room and board.
"The only way he could reach out was getting arrested. Then the only help he'd get was in jail."
The problem with the state's Baker Act: To commit someone, authorities have to be convinced he or she is a threat to self or others. Nothing less.
"Is that a good way for us to do business? Obviously not," says Nieves, the mental health specialist.
Adds Public Defender Carey Haughwout: "The system is not equipped to deal with folks on the edge. The shame is, we're really waiting for something bad to happen."
"The problem with Johnny," Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Krista Marx said, is that while judges can order treatment for felony defendants, they can't for misdemeanors.
They can order people, as a condition of release, to stay with treatment, "but they don't have the hammer,'" said Marx, who also heads the county's mental health court.
Statistics show taxpayers shell out seven times as much for defendants with mental health issues, Marx said.
"We're spending it on the back end. If we had stronger community programs that were helping individuals with mental health issues at an earlier age, or an earlier stage, then we'd save the money of putting them through the system," the judge said.
One place Johnny shouldn't expect help is from his parents.
"I have no clue. I've tried," his mother, Mary, now Mary Adams, said.
"He will continue to get out of where he's at; and as long as he can get the drugs and the alcohol, he's going to go right back to it," she said from northwest Florida.
"I don't know what to tell you, buddy," his father, Red Goode said. "I've been at a loss since he was 15 years old and started showing this 'googly-goo.' "
Johnny said he was confident this latest stint at South Florida State Hospital will end his cycle.
But as he stood to leave, he turned.
Topic: Man arrested 49 times in 40 months (Read 929 times)