A group of patient advocates and law enforcement agencies is expected to propose a series of modest changes to state law today that could have a big effect on South Carolina's mental health system.

State Rep. Jim Harrison, a Columbia Republican and chair of the House Judiciary Committee, will introduce a total of six proposals designed to correct what the group says are flaws in the way judges and police officers handle the mentally ill.

Harrison said the package will open up some beds, streamline the process for those who need to be committed for emergency treatment and filter out some of those who no longer need it.

"What we're proposing is not a solution to all the problems," Harrison said. "But it's a step in the right direction. It should have a positive impact."

David Almeida, director of the state chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, or NAMI, thinks the effect will be considerable.

"They're simple changes to the law that offer significant changes to the mental health system," he said.

An estimated 214,000 South Carolinians suffer from what experts define as a "serious" mental illness, according to federal government data; 180,000 have been addicted to alcohol or drugs within the past year. The state's population is about 4 million.

Critics have long complained that the mentally ill don't have enough access to proper treatment.

The economic cost of untreated mental illness is more than $100 billion a year nationwide, according to NAMI.

Although various groups have pushed for reforms for years, advocates say the problem has become more urgent as a result of budget cuts at the Department of Mental Health and a reduction in the number of inpatient beds.

In response, a coalition of mental health advocates, hospitals, police officers and probate judges, called S.C. Partners in Crisis, formed to focus on ways to improve the system without spending any money.

One proposal would provide legal protection to police officers who divert someone to a treatment facility who has committed a "victimless crime" -- such as vagrancy or urinating in public -- and appears to be mentally ill or on drugs.

Officers in some parts of the state say they feel they might leave themselves open to liability if they take such people anywhere but jail, advocates said. This idea would allow them to take those people to an emergency room, a crisis stabilization center or a place to get sober.

"We want a law enforcement officer to feel confident to take a person being drunk and disorderly to a sobering center, versus charging them and then hoping that somewhere along the way they're going to get treatment," said Amy McCulloch, a Richland County probate judge who helped develop the proposals.

Another proposal would put more teeth in court-ordered outpatient treatment plans. If a person doesn't comply with such plans now, Almeida said, families and facilities frequently have no recourse until the person becomes a threat to himself or others.

The proposal requires treatment facilities to report to the court when a person didn't comply with his or her treatment plan.

The legislation also would give courts the power to intervene "before a situation deteriorates and someone does something to themselves or somebody else," Almeida said.

Two other parts of the package would give authorities 72 hours to serve orders for a mental health evaluation or to pick someone up for chemical dependency treatment.

Another part of the package would allow family court probate judges to order juveniles to a community mental health center rather than an inpatient facility for an evaluation. McCulloch said juveniles staying with families or in foster care might be much better off having evaluations in their community, which is less intimidating than a mental hospital.

The sixth proposal would allow judges to release a person before a hearing on whether he or she should be committed to an inpatient facility so long as two examiners deem that the person no longer needs treatment.

McCulloch said mentally ill people are often kept in a hospital longer than necessary, after their episodes have ended, which takes up space needed for others.