“We exist because community members have been asking for years that the city change course from a culture of punishment and an assumption that jail is a place where people should be disappeared to if they are poor, or they are suffering in public. When it comes to the decisions that our city and our county make about how to address the fact that so many people who fit that bill are languishing in our jails — we are squarely in the middle of the conversation, whether we like it or not,” Macias said. “We are making changes [to] how our city responds to these really difficult challenges, and we are just begging those partners that we have been working with for years at the city and the county to stay the course.”

“Expanding the jail is a knee jerk response, and I believe we have come too far for that,” said Moki Macias, PAD’s executive director. She said data shows over 300 people arrested over the past six months could have been diverted and provided services, but were nevertheless taken to Fulton County Jail.

The Policing Alternatives and Diversion initiative — which provides resources to people accused of nonviolent offenses who might otherwise be booked into jail — pushed back on that provision, telling The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a statement that “the goal of PAD’s services as well as the Diversion Center is to reduce the number of people in jail. “Funding any of these activities with revenues generated from incarcerating the same people we seek to assist is incompatible with our mission as well as our values,” the statement says.

The 5-year-old nonprofit responds to calls for poverty, mental health and substance use. PAD's executive director, Moki Macias, said the increased funding will go to hire more staff. Currently, PAD has just under 40 staff members.

"This funding will allow us to expand our harm reduction response teams, the folks who show up when we get a call," Macias said. "It will allow us to expand our care navigation team, who work with people with open cases or who have been diverted by law enforcement and provide wraparound services long-term. It will allow us to double our outreach team.”

Moki Macias, the executive director of the Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative, tells Axios Atlanta that even a conservative estimate of diverting 40 people a day from the jail and into the services they need could have a substantial effect.

Macias says the center is but one part of a larger system that must be built, funded and maintained. “We need to invest in the whole continuum of resources” — meaning high-quality and accessible healthcare, housing and recovery options — “that people need to be more well,” she says.

After a chance encounter with a homeless mother and child at an Atlanta shopping center, Ruby-Beth Buitekant wanted to help. She dialed ATL 311.

"I knew it was an alternative to calling the police," said Buitekant. "I didn't feel like calling police on a neighbor who needed some help."

A new service has been launched for Atlanta residents to call for non-emergency situations, as opposed to 911. Atlanta's 311 is partnering with these agencies to cut down on arrests and to provide resources to those in need.

“Our current system, which we have had in place for decades, is that the police are available to respond to basically any concern,” Macias said. “And the expectation is that they will make that person disappear.”

But she says if that person is arrested for a minor offense, they’re generally released with all the same problems they had to begin with, now with the added trauma of their time in jail. Macias says that’s why a big part of PAD’s work is community education.

“This fight has been a very, very long one, and the fight continues,” [Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms] said. The center is designed to help non-violent offenders struggling with mental illness and homelessness without sending them to jail or to a hospital. The city partnered with Fulton County and the Pre-Arrest Diversion Initiative (PAD).

“Today is a celebration in recognition of what happens when public leaders, despite party label, color, race, or religion, come together to get things done,” said District 6 Fulton County Commissioner Khadijah Abdur-Rahman. “We will keep people safer, put a dent in homelessness and reduce costs for all people.”

“This Center represents an opportunity to expand the impact of pre-arrest diversion ten-fold – by expanding the partners involved, creating 24/7 availability, and making it easier for law enforcement and the people they divert to access the resources that will more effectively address community concerns,” said Moki Macias, PAD Executive Director.

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.

PAD Participant Antonio Bryant shares his story living through 15 years of chronic homelessness, and in collaboration with Partners for HOME, PAD answers commonly asked questions about homelessness.

“Our work exposes on some level… where there’s more work to do to make sure we that we are building the kind of systems that really serve people,” explained Macias [the Executive Director of PAD]. Macias along with Chyna Quarker, the referral coordinator for PAD, were guests on Thursday’s edition of ‘Closer Look.’ They told show host Rose Scott about expanding the program citywide and how the expansion will continue efforts of reimagining public safety and rethinking how poverty is seen and defined.

The Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative (PAD) is on track to assist 450 people this year who would otherwise be arrested for nonviolent offenses, program leaders said Monday.

The initiative aims to keep vulnerable people out of the criminal justice system and instead connect them with the social services they need.

The Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative, or PAD, began in 2017… Since expanding to cover all of the zones patrolled by the Atlanta Police Department zones in January 2021, the nonprofit has helped more than 400 people avoid jail time according to Director of Diversions Denise White.

Residents of Atlanta can now call a non-emergency number to ask for help with concerns related to mental health, substance use or extreme poverty rather than calling 911, city officials said.

The Policing Alternatives & Diversion (PAD) Initiative has expanded citywide to provide an immediate alternative to arrest for individuals committing violations commonly related to mental health needs, addiction, homelessness or extreme poverty.

On a chilly morning in March, Brittany Molinaro was working in her home office when about 10 a.m. she heard a knock at the door. She peeked out of the window to see an adult man on her doorstep crying… She scrolled through her phone and pulled up a number she had jotted down in January from the neighborhood Facebook page — a non-emergency number that residents could call instead of calling police.

Written by Moki Macias, PAD’s Executive Director

By investing in our communities, we can begin healing from the poisoned logic of incarceration — the idea that we can banish people rather than solve problems — that has failed us all. But non-police responders will only be as strong as the community resources that we can connect people to.

Police in Atlanta have an option not to arrest for certain low-level offenses. That message is being delivered to officers in every quadrant of the city.