Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is pushing to transform part of the Atlanta jail into a 24/7 center that will provide services and medical care to people who would otherwise be arrested and booked into the detention center.
The proposed Center for Diversion and Services would be created through a partnership with Fulton County, Grady Memorial Hospital and the Policing Alternatives & Diversion Initiative, and would build on the work PAD has done over the last few years to assist people facing poverty, mental health issues or substance abuse and are at risk of being arrested for low-level crimes.
The center would provide behavioral health screenings, medical care, sobering rooms, case management, food, and a place to shower, according to a resolution introduced in the Atlanta City Council on Monday.
“Another step towards thoughtful criminal justice reform,” Bottoms wrote in a tweet Monday.
An officer who might ordinarily arrest someone accused of a minor, nonviolent offense would be able to instead take them to the center, said Moki Macias, the executive director of the initiative, which began as a pilot program in 2017 and has since expanded citywide.
“If the real goal is to reduce the jailing of people who are experiencing behavioral health needs, then diversion has to be a key part of the equation,” Macias said.
The proposal follows years of debate surrounding the Atlanta City Detention Center, which is mostly empty. Bottoms has proposed closing the jail and replacing it with a community center, though that idea faced pushback earlier this year from the City Council and officials at Fulton County, who have sought to address their own jail overcrowding issues by using space in Atlanta’s facility.
The long-term future of the jail is still unclear, though Macias said she hopes the new center is a “first step in us continuing to move away from jailing people altogether for these kinds of issues.”
The center would be created through a memorandum of understanding between the city, the county, Grady and PAD. The city would commit $3 million in one-time capital costs and $2,535,000 in operating costs, and the county would pay $2,535,000 toward operating costs, the resolution states.
Both Fulton Commission Chair Robb Pitts and Sheriff Patrick Labat declined to comment on the Atlanta proposal Monday.
Last time commissioners met, which was two weeks ago, Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Robert McBurney gave a sweeping presentation about how the diversion proposal could save taxpayers time and money.
The proposal enjoys rare bi-partisan support from commissioners.
McBurney said the program could divert 10,500 bookings a year from the over-crowded county jail and the city jail. He added that the program could also remove 4,400 police custody admissions to Grady Health System’s emergency facility.
Commissioners plan to meet again Wednesday, but the pre-arrest diversion plan is not on the agenda. Leaders are set to discuss a feasibility study to see if Fulton needs a new jail and how that would work. Labat has said he needs a new jail he expects may cost between $400 million to $500 million.
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