Less than two weeks before Jahmare Brown was arrested in the fatal stabbing of 23-year-old Alyssa Paige on the Beltline Trail, he had been accused of waving a knife and threatening to kill a man in downtown Atlanta.
According to records uncovered by WSB-TV, Brown, 21, was not arrested in connection with the alleged threats by the Atlanta Police officer who responded to the scene. Instead, the person who reported the incident and the officer agreed that Brown should be taken to the Center for Diversion and Services to receive mental health treatment.
The Diversion Center is a joint-venture between Atlanta, Fulton County, and Grady Hospital with Grady acting as the center’s operator. People brought to the center can receive a hot meal, a shower and free laundry before they are referred to legal services and case managers who can help them access identification, short and long-term housing, food stamps, mental health treatment, and substance use programs.
The revelation of Brown’s recent diversion has, however, underscored concerns about the center’s impact and effectiveness.
Since opening in 2025, the center has been largely underused by local law enforcement. At its peak, the $3 million facility on Peachtree Street averaged eight daily referrals, well below the 40 referrals per day it was designed to handle. Similarly, the Police Alternatives and Diversion Initiative, which had been providing long-term case management at the center, ceased operations at the center in late March due to an ongoing contract dispute with the city of Atlanta.
A spokesperson for the mayor’s office declined to comment on the contract directly but added that Grady Hospital’s team has stepped in to prevent a disruption in services while the contract is in limbo.
Robyn Hasan-Simpson, executive director of Women on the Rise and a member of the Justice Policy Board that governs that Diversion Center, said Wednesday that while Grady is able to provide people with resources, they aren’t able to provide the same personal support as PAD.
“We have learned that we can’t just give someone the resources and say, “Hey, go call this place, they can help you.” Sometimes you have to take them down there and sit with them as they explain what they need and help [them] get what they need,” Simpson said.
When Brown was diverted in early May, PAD had already left the center. Twelve days later, he was accused of killing Paige and seriously injuring a postal worker with a rock in a separate attack earlier that day.
“He still got connected to resources,” Hasan-Simpson said. “But I do think having that peer support that PAD offers could have made an impact.”
Diversion eligibility
Brown’s past record includes a guilty plea to misdemeanor battery for assaulting a woman on MARTA in January and a 2023 conviction for felony aggravated assault in Clayton County for which he is still on probation. Nonetheless, he was eligible in May to be diverted based on APD policy.
Diversion Criteria from Atlanta Police Standard Operating Procedure
1. Individuals must be 18 years of age or older.
2. Be accused of a nonviolent crime.
3. The individual voluntarily agrees to enter diversion in lieu of arrest.
4. The individual does not have an active warrant.
5. The arresting officer observed circumstances indicating the offense was committed due to:
a. a mental health crisis
b. substance use
c. homelessness
d. extreme poverty
Although Brown’s probation status did not impede his eligibility for diversion, last week WSB-TV published a letter sent in March by a Fulton County prosecutor to the Clayton County district attorney’s office alerting staff to his guilty plea for the January MARTA assault.
In the letter, the Fulton prosecutor asked if the Clayton DA wanted to pursue a probation violation and noted that the victim of the January attack was willing to participate in the case.
Contract dispute
Moki Macias, PAD’s executive director, told Capital B Atlanta on Wednesday that the Atlanta City Council had voted to authorize the budget and contract renewal for PAD and the Georgia Justice Project, a nonprofit that provides legal services at the Diversion Center.
Grady, the center’s operator, renewed GJP’s contract but made changes to PAD’s contract that she described as “gutting their role in the partnership.”
“[We] requested that these changes be brought to the Justice Policy Board,” Macias said in a written statement. “The board has voted to require Grady to extend the contract with PAD until they could consider the changes to scope, but Grady has declined to do so at the request of the Mayor’s office.”
On March 19, PAD notified Grady that it would not continue staffing the center. PAD stopped accepting new case management referrals on March 23.
While a spokesperson for the mayor’s office characterized this as PAD “abandoning their role” as a partner in the center, Macias said PAD had to cease operations because they “could not continue to pay their intake staff without a contract.”
It’s now been over two months since PAD has accepted a new client from the Diversion Center into its long-term case management program; however, it is still accepting new referrals directly from law enforcement and the Fulton County Jail.
Macias said PAD currently has 150 people enrolled with its case managers.
