The Tristin Murphy Act: A New Lifeline for Mentally Ill Defendants in Florida

For years in Florida, our jails and prisons have quietly doubled as the state’s largest “mental health facilities.”

People with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe PTSD, autism, and other serious conditions get arrested on low-level, non-violent charges that are really symptoms of untreated illness. Once in custody, they often get worse, not better.

The story of Tristin Murphy brought that reality into painful focus.

Tristin was a 37-year-old man living with schizophrenia. He was ultimately sent to prison on a felony littering charge after rolling his truck into a retention pond next to the Charlotte County Jail. While incarcerated, he was placed on a prison work squad with access to dangerous tools, including a chainsaw, despite his obvious mental health history. He died by suicide on that work detail in 2021.

His death pushed families, advocates, and lawmakers to demand something better than “warehouse, then forget.” Out of that came CS/CS/SB 168 – the “Tristin Murphy Act.” It was signed into law on June 25, 2025, and took effect October 1, 2025.

For defendants and their families, this law is more than a slogan. It creates concrete legal tools we can use to fight for treatment instead of incarceration.

What Is the Tristin Murphy Act?

Formally, SB 168 is a sweeping mental-health reform bill that touches multiple parts of Florida law. It is expressly cited as the “Tristin Murphy Act”.

At its core, the Act declares that when a person with mental illness, intellectual disability, or autism is charged with certain felonies, any misdemeanor, or even an ordinance violation, the default approach should be evaluation and community-based services whenever that is a safe and feasible alternative to incarceration.

In plain English:

A jail cell is not a hospital room, and it should not be treated like one.

The law backs that statement up with very real changes in how cases can be handled.

Key Provisions That Can Change the Outcome of a Case

This is not just a “feel-good” law. It builds actual processes and programs into the statutes—tools a defense lawyer can use, starting at first appearance and continuing through sentencing.

1. Pretrial Mental Health Diversion Programs – The Game Changer

The centerpiece of the Act for defense strategy is the creation of model diversion processes for both:

• Misdemeanor / ordinance cases (new § 916.135, Fla. Stat.)

• Pretrial felony cases (new § 916.136, Fla. Stat.)

These sections give counties and circuits a blueprint to set up mental-health diversion programs and encourage them to apply for Criminal Justice, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse Reinvestment Grants to fund them.

How it works in practice:

• If there is any indication your loved one has a mental illness, a screening can be requested using a standardized, validated instrument.

• If the screening shows signs of mental illness, the State Attorney can offer misdemeanor or felony mental health diversion.

• For felony diversion, once the defendant agrees and signs a consent form, they must be assessed by a local mental health treatment center—often via telehealth in the jail, in person at the center, or after being released on their own recognizance with a deadline to complete the assessment (usually within 48 hours of release).

• If an outpatient treatment plan is created, the court can release the person ROR on the condition they follow the treatment plan.

The big payoff:

Once the person successfully completes all recommended treatment:

• For misdemeanor/ordinance diversion, the law directs that the State Attorney must consider dismissing the charges, and if dismissal isn’t appropriate, they should at least consider mental health court or another diversion track.

• For felony diversion, the State Attorney likewise must consider dismissal upon successful completion.

Is dismissal guaranteed? No. The prosecutor still has discretion. But the law forces the State to take treatment success seriously instead of just rubber-stamping convictions.

2. Early Screening & Use of the Baker Act When Jail Is the Worst Place to Be

The Act builds a detailed pathway for early evaluation of people in jail whose behavior suggests serious mental illness, and it ties that process into Florida’s existing Baker Act (involuntary examination under § 394.463).

Under the new model diversion statutes:

• A qualified mental health professional can conduct an evaluation using Baker Act criteria.

• If the person meets those criteria, the clinician may issue a professional certificate and the person must be transported within 72 hours to a designated receiving facility for further evaluation—often instead of just sitting in a jail cell deteriorating.

• The court can order that the person be returned to custody afterward or be kept under a “jail hold,” but the key is this:

  
  

  Severe mental illness should trigger a clinical response, not just more punishment.

Even when the person doesn’t meet full Baker Act criteria, the court can order outpatient assessments and create outpatient treatment plans as a condition of release or pretrial diversion.

3. Probation and Competency: Closing the Revolving Door

Before the Tristin Murphy Act, a common pattern looked like this:

1. A defendant is found incompetent to stand trial due to mental illness.

2. They go to a state hospital or forensic program, are restored to competency, and return to court.

3. They resolve the case and walk out on probation with no meaningful plan for mental health follow-up.

4. They decompensate, violate probation, and land right back in the system.

The new law directly targets that vicious cycle.

• Newly created § 948.0395, Fla. Stat. requires that any defendant who was previously adjudicated incompetent due to mental illness and later restored to competency, must have:

  
  

  • A mental health evaluation, and

  • A requirement to follow all treatment recommendations as a condition of probation.

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This gives judges a statutory backbone to insist on ongoing treatment, not just “good luck, here’s your probation paperwork.”

4. Safer Prison Work Assignments – Learning from Tristin’s Death

The Act also addresses one of the most disturbing parts of Tristin’s story:

He was placed on an outside work squad with access to a chainsaw, despite a long record of psychosis and suicide attempts.

New § 945.093, Fla. Stat. now requires the Florida Department of Corrections to:

• Evaluate the physical and mental health of each inmate before assigning them to a work detail or correctional work program, and

• Document that approval before the assignment is made.

It doesn’t fix everything overnight, but it means Tristin’s experience is now directly written into Florida law as a “never again” rule.

How We Use the Tristin Murphy Act in Your Defense

At Pensacola.lawyer, we see the Tristin Murphy Act as more than a headline. It’s a toolkit we can use to change outcomes for clients whose “crime” is really untreated mental illness.

Here’s what that looks like in real cases:

Immediate Advocacy

From the first phone call, we are asking:

• Has this person ever been Baker Acted?

• Do they have a history of hospitalizations, medications, or diagnoses like schizophrenia, bipolar, or major depression?

• What do family members and prior providers say about their baseline functioning?

We gather medical records, family statements, prior evaluations, and jail incident reports to build a clear picture that this is a mental health case, not just a criminal case.

Pushing for Diversion — Not Waiting for the State

We don’t sit back and hope the prosecutor suggests diversion “out of the goodness of their heart.”

We:

• File motions requesting screening using the standardized tools referenced in the Act.

• Ask the court to order evaluations that open the door to misdemeanor or felony mental health diversion.

• Push for our clients to be released ROR into treatment programs when the statute allows it.

Documenting Treatment and Negotiating for Dismissal

Once a client is in a diversion program or structured treatment:

• We stay in close contact with treatment providers, making sure compliance and progress are well-documented.

• We use that record to press the State Attorney to dismiss charges or at least agree to a non-conviction resolution consistent with the law’s intent that treatment comes before punishment.

Mitigation at Sentencing When Diversion Isn’t Available

Diversion won’t fit every case. Sometimes:

• The charge is too serious, or

• The client’s history is too long or too violent for a formal diversion track.

Even then, the legislative intent behind the Tristin Murphy Act—that people with serious mental illness should be evaluated for treatment in the community when feasible—gives us powerful mitigation arguments:

• Conditions of probation built around treatment and stability, not just “don’t get arrested.”

• Use of specialized courts, forensic diversion programs, and structured outpatient services.

The Bottom Line

If your loved one has been arrested and lives with mental illness, intellectual disability, or autism, the landscape in Florida has changed.

You no longer have to accept:

• A system that criminalizes symptoms,

• A jail that pretends to be a hospital, or

• A revolving door where the same crisis keeps ending in the same mugshot.

The Tristin Murphy Act creates a legal pathway to:

• Get your loved one screened,

• Push for diversion into real treatment,

• Build a record that can support dismissal of charges, and

• Ensure that if probation is imposed, it comes with built-in mental health support, not just punishment.

Don’t let a mental health crisis turn into a permanent criminal record.

If someone you care about has been arrested in Northwest Florida and you believe mental illness is part of the story, contact Pensacola.lawyer. We’ll review the case, look at your loved one’s history, and tell you honestly how we can use the Tristin Murphy Act to fight for treatment, stability, and a future worth saving.

Disclaimer: This blog post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading this page does not create an attorney–client relationship. Every case is unique, and the new law’s impact depends on specific facts and on how local programs are implemented in your county. If you or a loved one is facing charges, speak directly with a qualified Florida criminal defense attorney about your situation.