The Center for Diversion & Services

Immediate alternative to arrest, 24 hours a day.

See more images of the Center for Diversion and Services, along with a floorplan, here!

The Center for Diversion and Services will provide law enforcement officers and first responders an immediate, 24/7 alternative to arresting people who have been detained for law violations driven by extreme poverty, unmet mental health needs, and substance use. The Diversion Center will include a range of services and resources to meet people’s needs, including clothing, food, showers, case management, and legal assistance.

Since 2017, PAD has provided pre-arrest diversion services to law enforcement. In 2018, PAD and partner agencies began working to establish a 24/7 resource center. PAD is a core operational partner in the new center, providing care navigation services to people who come through its doors.

Why does Atlanta need a Diversion Center?

In the City of Atlanta today, a person can be arrested and jailed in the Atlanta City Detention Center for up to six months for loitering, public urination, panhandling, urban camping, or failure to pay traffic tickets, among many other city ordinance and traffic violations. For state charges like criminal trespassing, shoplifting, or drug possession, Atlanta residents may be booked into Fulton County Jail and subjected to unsafe and overcrowded conditions.

Jailing people for violations related to poverty, substance addiction, and mental illness exacerbates quality of life issues, rather than solving them. Indeed, it pushes people even further to the margins, away from the connections and resources that support stability and wellness.

The Diversion Center provides law enforcement the ability to offer immediate services instead of arresting people for activities related to extreme poverty, addiction, or mental health, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This fills a crucial gap in the Atlanta area’s crisis response infrastructure and help reduce Atlanta and Fulton County’s reliance on jail for public order issues stemming from quality of life concerns. It will reduce the number of people struggling with these issues from entering the city and county’s jails, and has the potential to divert 10,500 jail bookings (10% of bookings) annually from the Atlanta City Detention Center and Fulton County jail. Most importantly, Diversion Center guests experience increased quality of life, avoid contact with our legal system, and receive the supportive care they need.

Who is leading the Diversion Center work?

The Diversion Center is operated through a shared governance model led by the Justice Policy Board, which was established through an Intergovernmental Agreement between the City of Atlanta and Fulton County (21-O-0801).

Learn more about the Justice Policy Board below or click here.

How will the Diversion Center work?

When Atlanta Police Department officers have probable cause to arrest someone but identify that there is an underlying quality of life concern, they can instead offer diversion. If the person consents to diversion, the officer will drop them off at the The Diversion Center. The officer will leave, and no police report will be made.

Once there, the individual will be greeted by peer specialists who will help address immediate basic needs such as food, showers, and clean clothing. Guests will then be connected to PAD and Grady staff, who will provide a range of services, from physical and mental health screenings and basic first aid to connections to housing, health care and other stabilizing resources, including ongoing case management.

All services at the The Diversion Center will be consent based, and neither PAD nor Grady staff will be responsible for enforcing the law. People are free to leave at any time.

Where will the Diversion Center be located?

The Diversion Center will be located at 254 Peachtree Street SW. While it will be in the same building as ACDC, it will be totally separate from jail operations, with its own dedicated entrance on Memorial Drive. It will be welcoming, warm, and absent of any jail features, instead boasting a large mural on the outside of the building as well as an art installation inside the building.

What services will be provided?

The Diversion Center includes a range of services and resources to meet people’s immediate needs. This includes clothing, a snack pantry, showers, bathrooms, lockers, phone chargers, and a living room where people can wait for to speak with a case manager.

PAD’s Care Navigation team provides ongoing direct case management, housing support, and legal navigation to guests of the Diversion Center. For example, a Care Navigator may help an individual reconnect with family members, find a job, secure disability benefits, move into permanent housing, or resolve long-standing legal issues that have prevented them from moving their lives forward. For people with ongoing legal challenges, the Georgia Justice Project will provide warrant resolution.

By the end of 2024, Fulton County will also be opening a new Behavioral Health Crisis Center. This24-hour facility will have 24 beds and 16 observation chairs, and will provide behavioral health crisis services to an estimated 5,000 people each year.

Are there other Diversion Centers in the United States?

Yes! While the Diversion Center will be the first of its kind in the Southeast, there are many successful Diversion Centers happening in communities all over the country.

For example, the Judge Ed Emmet Mental Health Diversion Center in Harris County, Texas opened in 2018. Clients who were served at The Center were 1.4 times less likely to be booked into jail on a subsequent new charge. In contrast, individuals who went to jail rather than the Diversion Center were 45 times more likely to return to jail on a subsequent new offense. And for every $1 spent, the program avoided spending $5.54 on future jail bookings.

Who is on the Justice Policy Board?

The Justice Policy Board was tasked with setting an overall vision and goals for an intergovernmental and multi-stakeholder partnership between the City of Atlanta and Fulton County focused on establishing and supporting the development of the Diversion Center and expanding and strengthening metro Atlanta’s continuum of resources to provide alternatives to arrest and incarceration. The continuum of resources may include, but is not limited to, increased behavioral and crisis care programming and services and expanded options (beyond arrest and jail) for concerns related to homelessness, mental health, substance use, and poverty.

The Justice Policy Board is co-chaired by Atlanta City Councilmember Dustin Hillis and Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney and has representation from relevant governmental and partner organizations including:

  • City of Atlanta

    • Atlanta Police Department

    • Mayor’s Cabinet

    • Atlanta City Council

    • Office of Violence Reduction

    • Department of Law

  • Fulton County

    • Fulton County Board of Commissioners

    • Fulton County Superior Court

    • Fulton County Solicitor General

    • Fulton County Office of the County Attorney

    • Fulton County Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Disabilities

  • Policing Alternatives & Diversion Initiative (PAD)

  • Georgia Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Disabilities

  • Grady Health System

  • Georgia Justice Project

  • Partners for HOME

  • Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network

  • Women on the Rise

  • Microsoft Justice Reform Initiative

  • Criminal Justice Coordination Council

Interested in learning more?