ATLANTA — Atlanta's city council on Monday approved a nearly $3 million plan to convert a portion of the city jail into a diversion services center.
It fulfills, partially, a long-sought progressive goal to shutter the Atlanta City Detention Center and see it turned into a center focused around restorative justice practices and principles.
But the facility, which former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms had vowed to close, will continue to house inmates under a deal struck with the county.
The plan will see the bottom two floors of the hulking Downtown detention center on Peachtree Street renovated into a space the mayor's office said would "serve as a pre-arrest drop-off point for law enforcement and be comprised of a wide range of stakeholders and service providers who share a unified vision of providing services in a supportive environment to people experiencing concerns related to homelessness, mental health, substance use or poverty."
Mayor Andre Dickens said in a statement that it marks a "proactive approach to addressing some of the root causes of crime."
"This is a people-first holistic approach to public safety to end the cycle of needless incarceration for non-violent offenders and strengthen community wellness by directly addressing the underlying issues related to behavioral health and poverty," Dickens said.
City Council President Doug Shipman told 11Alive's Joe Ripley that design plans would be making their way to the council and the Mayor's Office "in a few months" with construction targeted to begin next year.
The plan is modeled after a mental health jail diversion program in the Houston, Texas area, Shipman said.
"It’s a place other than a hospital or jail to take folks in need of mental health service, substance abuse services, facing homelessness, really a place for them to go," the city council president said.
Councilman Michael Julian Bond echoed those sentiments, saying, "we want to make sure we have the services and the opportunity to help to divert people from a lifetime of being involved in the criminal justice system.”