Costly and Cruel: How Misuse of the Baker Act Harms 37,000 Florida Children Each Year

The SPLC has released a new report – Costly and Cruel: How Misuse of the Baker Act Harms 37,000 Florida Children Each Year – about the prolific use of Florida’s Baker Act to send children to psychiatric facilities for involuntary examination.

The report describes how, in many cases, parents and caregivers in Florida are stripped of the right to console, manage and determine the level of psychiatric treatment for their own children. More than 37,000 times each year, children across the state have the Baker Act used against them largely by schools, police and foster care facilities. Sometimes – for very minor infractions and normal adolescent behavior –  they are handcuffed by police, taken away in cop cars and deeply traumatized, stuck for days in facilities for an involuntary psychiatric exam, where they may or may not get to speak with their family.

Some of these children are as young as 5 and 6 years old. Many have developmental disabilities. A disproportionate number of them are Black and Brown. The misuse of the Baker Act in Florida has effectively created yet another pipeline to push out and police our most vulnerable children and put them at greater risk of harm.

Read the report by clicking on the image below.

Photo by Getty Images