Sharmila Venkatasubban | The Florida Trib

State records show the controversial initiative shifted priorities away from DCF’s eligibility division that has since failed federal standards and left Floridians cut off

Florida is leaving mentally ill defendants to languish in county jails for months after judges order their transfer to psychiatric hospitals, often locking them in cramped solitary cells, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday by a coalition of civil and disability-rights groups. Sometimes, those defendants died in harsh conditions before ever making it to a hospital.

Angie Nixon, a progressive state lawmaker from Jacksonville, whose pointed and passionate criticism of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis generated headlines and made her a symbol of political resistance, won the Democratic primary of U.S. Senate on Tuesday, the Associated Press called.