When local officials first opened The Center for Diversion and Services, they touted its potential to divert nearly 15,000 bookings each year that would otherwise enter Fulton County jails or police custody at Grady Memorial Hospital’s psychiatric unit.
“This more community-based approach is essential for creating a more effective and compassionate public safety ecosystem,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said at the ribbon cutting ceremony in October.
The center is staffed with care navigators from the Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative who can reconnect individuals with family members and find housing support, substance-use treatment, health care services, or help them secure a government ID. A team from the Georgia Justice Project offers a warrant resolution clinic for anyone who may have a Fulton County Superior or State Court or Atlanta Municipal Court case.
The facility also has on-site services, including a sobering room, laundry, a shower, and a food pantry for someone who has unmet needs related to homelessness, mental illness, extreme poverty, or substance abuse.
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But since the center — a joint venture between Atlanta, Fulton County, and Grady Health System — officially opened its doors on Jan. 20, it’s seen fewer than 500 bookings, well below the projected numbers.
Considering the initial $3 million price tag and $5 million annual operational costs that are split by Atlanta and Fulton County, the Justice Policy Board, which oversees the center, will have its work cut out for it during a strategy session at the Carter Center on Thursday.
“I think given that it’s been open for four months, there’s still a lot of just awareness within the police department around what is available at the center, the fact that it is open 24/7, that it takes officers less than a minute to bring somebody there to connect them to services instead of booking them at one of the jails,” Moki Macias, executive director of the Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative, told Capital B Atlanta.
Macias represents PAD on the Justice Policy Board, which also includes representatives from the city, state and county as well as Grady Health System, Georgia Justice Project, and Women on the Rise, an advocacy group for incarcerated women.
“I think given that the Justice Policy Board brings such a collaborative group of stakeholders to the table, I feel really confident that we can keep advancing our shared goals,” she said of the upcoming meeting.
While Macias was not ready to point the blame for the center’s underperformance at any single group, the prevailing narrative of Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney’s presentation at the June 4 Fulton County Board of Commissioner’s meeting was that law enforcement were underutilizing the resource.
“We need to have officers think more holistically,” said McBurney, who serves as co-chair of the Justice Policy Board.
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Though it was designed to serve 40 people daily, currently the center sees three people a day on average.
“We change three lives a day. That’s great, that’s three more than before, but we built something that can do more, and we ought to empower it to do so,” McBurney said.
Unlike the Behavioral Health Crisis Center, people can’t just walk into the diversion center; they must be brought by a law enforcement officer as an alternative to incarceration. Atlanta Police is the only police department in Fulton County that has used the facility so far, but APD officers are still taking the majority of their arrests for divertible offenses to jail rather than the center.
Based on data from the Jail Population Review Committee, between February and March, 187 diversion eligible arrests were booked into jail. Not every person arrested on a divertible charge — like trespassing, disorderly conduct, public intoxication or shoplifting — is eligible for diversion. People suspected of a violent crime, have a pending charge, or are under 17 cannot be diverted through the center.
Of the 187 people arrested, McBurney said 84% were eligible for diversion but still taken to jail.
Most spent fewer than five days in jail.
“It’s long enough to lose an important connection, but not so serious that we thought you needed to be in jail for more than five days,” McBurney said.
He pointed out that people who receive supporting housing through drug court can be evicted if they miss curfew two days in a row and lose employment if they are no-called no-show.
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Board of Commissioners Chair Robb Pitts told Capital B Atlanta that when he heard about the center’s underuse two weeks ago, he convened a meeting with the chief or a representative of the chief for each police department in Fulton County to discuss ways to encourage officers to use the center.
“What I plan to do going forward … probably on a monthly basis is to ask for an update on how things are going, and to add anything else that I, as chair of the Board of Commissioners, can do as an individual to make sure that it’s being utilized,” he told Capital B Atlanta on Tuesday.
District 3 Commissioner Dana Barrett did however point out that even if all the eligible people had been diverted instead of booked into jail, that would only increase the daily average by two or three people, well below the 40 people the center was designed to serve each day.
“We change three lives a day. That’s great … but we built something that can do more, and we ought to empower it to do so.”
Robert McBurney, Fulton County Superior Court judge and Justice Policy Board co-chair
McBurney proposed hiring a full-time staff member to who could intervene when a diversion-eligible person is being booked into jail and potentially expand who can qualify for diversion services.
In a statement to Capital B Atlanta, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office characterized the center’s low traffic in a much more positive light.
“Since the beginning of the year, the City has successfully had at least 470 diversions. Unfortunately, there are instances where diversion services are not an option because the charge is not eligible, the individual had an outstanding warrant and other reasons. The City is proud of this still relatively new initiative and will continue combatting the root causes of crime instead of choosing incarceration as the first and only option.”
Macias told Capital B Atlanta she expects police officers’ buy-in to improve over time because the center was designed based on law enforcement feedback and years of interviewing APD officers about what they need to do their jobs more effectively.
“They wanted a place that was 24/7. They wanted a place where resources were available right on site, so that the people they were bringing there knew that right then they would be able to receive some support. And so that’s what the Justice Policy Board created,” she said.
Once more police officers gain experience using the center, and see how efficient and convenient it is, Macias said she believes they will be more inclined to use it.
Community Engagement Editor Ann Hill Bond contributed to this story.
