TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) – Florida is making significant investments in hopes of improving the state’s mental health system. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed two sweeping mental health reforms into law Wednesday morning.

The changes include provisions to help people in the criminal justice system get the help they need.

Tristin Murphy was serving a prison sentence in a south Florida prison in 2021 when he died by suicide. His mother, Cindee Murphy, told lawmakers there were several missed opportunities to save him.

“Clearly, he should’ve been diverted out of the criminal justice system at several different points. There were lots of different times if different decisions could’ve been made, if different options had been available, he could’ve gotten the help that he needed,” Murphy said.

But she hopes the new laws will prevent anyone else from experiencing that loss.

“Tristin should still be here with us today. He would’ve been with us today if provisions in this bill were in place,” Murphy told a legislative committee earlier this year.

One of the laws DeSantis signed Wednesday morning is called the Tristin Murphy Act. It does several things, including establishing probation conditions for people with mental illness, setting requirements for work assignments, expanding training programs under a grant program and creating a new model for diverting people to treatment.

“If people are in the justice system and they have these really, particularly really significant mental health afflictions that we don’t think somehow just putting them in jail is going to fix them. That is not going to fix those problems,” DeSantis said.

The governor also signed a bill with more sweeping reforms, which includes updates to mental health and drug rehabilitation treatment practices.

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“A lot of time when you have a real serious crisis, there’s a buildup to that, that if you did have some support earlier on, probably could’ve been avoided,” DeSantis said.

Avoiding outcomes like Tristin’s for other families is his mother’s goal.

“My whole goal since this has happened to Tristin is to make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else. No one else’s family has to go through this,” Murphy said.

The Tristin Murphy Act takes effect in October. The other mental health reforms start next week.

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