Judge Steven Leifman: Will leave bench to focus on mental health issues, facility

For the past 24 years, Judge Steven Leifman has been at the forefront of the mental health and criminal justice reform movement in the United States.

Judge Leifman, who is the associate administrative judge of the Miami-Dade County Court Criminal Division, is set to open the Miami-Dade Behavioral Health Center once it’s approved by the county.

The new 181,000-square-foot, seven-story building will include a receiving center, integrated crisis stabilization unit, residential treatment, outpatient behavioral health and primary health care, and dental and optometric services.

The facility will also include a short-term psychiatric wing, podiatry and eye-care services, said Judge Leifman, who plans to retire at the end of this year to focus on the behavioral health center and other mental healthcare initiatives. 

“Our goal is to foster and coordinate systems that adequately connect acutely ill individuals who may be facing a crisis, to access to quality behavioral health and substance use disorder services,” he said. 

Judge Leifman is no stranger when it comes to solving the mental health crisis in the US. He previously served as special advisor on criminal justice and mental health for the Supreme Court of Florida and currently chairs the Florida Supreme Court’s Steering Committee on Problem Solving Courts. He is the co-chair of the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Mental Health Committee and co-chair of the Judges and Psychiatrists Leadership Initiative. 

He serves on the Florida Statewide Task Force on Opioid Abuse, the Florida Drug Policy Advisory Council, and the National Institute on Drug Addiction’s (NIDA) Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network. Judge Leifman is a member of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP), a lecturer in psychiatry at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and a voluntary assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Miami School of Medicine. 

He was appointed to serve on the Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators National Judicial Task Force to Examine State Courts’ Response to Mental Illness and the Interdepartmental Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee (ISMICC) established by the 21st Century Cures Act.

In 2015, Judge Leifman received the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence. One of the nation’s highest judicial honors was presented by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. at the United States Supreme Court. The Rehnquist Award is presented annually to a state court judge who exemplifies judicial excellence, integrity, fairness, and professional ethics.

On Oct. 22, 2023, Judge Leifman was bestowed the Papal Medal Benemerenti from Pope Francis by Archbishop Thomas Wenski for his work in the judicial system on behalf of people with mental illnesses.

“Giving and helping does make a difference, and it’s extraordinarily satisfying and important,” he said, “and being a lawyer, we have that privilege and opportunity to do this and we should take advantage of it.”

Judge Leifman spoke with Miami Today reporter Abraham Galvan.

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