The new documentary, The Definition of Insanity, explores the groundbreaking work of The Miami-Dade Criminal Mental Health Project (CMHP), an approach being heralded as a model for helping to solve the mental health crisis in America. A people-powered community-wide safety net, CMHP works through the court system to steer people with mental illness — as their legal cases hang in the balance — on a path from incarceration to recovery. Shocked by how people with mental illness were treated in Miami-Dade’s jails, Judge Steven Leifman works with a team of dedicated public servants, as well as former adversaries in the criminal justice system, to help people with mental illness navigate from lives of tragedy to possibility. Building on the story of Miami’s once-failed mental health system — a familiar national narrative of over-incarceration and brutal mistreatment — The Definition of Insanity instead reveals a humane criminal justice approach to mental illness that is orchestrated from the court outwards into the community. Produced and directed by Gabriel London, written and produced by Charlie Sadoff, and narrated by Rob Reiner, The Definition of Insanity premieres on Tuesday, April 14, 2020, 10:00-11:00 p.m. ET
