Moki Macias, PAD’s executive director says the system is failing communities nationwide. “It’s actually just moving some of our most vulnerable people into some of our most dangerous public facilities, which are local jails,” she said.

In an emergency situation, it may feel like calling 911 is your only option. However, decades of mistreatment by law enforcement have left many in Black communities feeling like they have no one to call in a crisis.

Construction is officially underway in downtown Atlanta for a new 24/7 resource center to address homelessness, mental health challenges, substance abuse, and poverty.

Atlanta city officials recently broke ground on The Center for Diversion and Services. It will serve as an alternative resource for people who would usually be sent to jails and emergency rooms.

The Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative, or PAD, said this will be the first time there’s a sobering center in Atlanta since before the 1996 Olympics.

The organization launched its own pre-arrest diversion mobile response in 2017. The following year, the Fulton County Justice and Mental Health Taskforce recommended a physical location

Written by Moki Macias, PAD’s Executive Director

If we are truly going to move away from a punitive framework, then we must go beyond investing in Community First Response — we need to also invest in community resources. By developing and increasing public accommodations, like bathrooms and showers, recovery communities that connect people to peer support and safe, accessible housing options, we reduce the need for any intervention altogether.

Grady Memorial Hospital and the Policing Alternatives and Diversion (PAD) Program have agreed to help staff the facility. With their assistance, the initiative is expected to divert 41 people daily from the local jails, detention facilities and emergency rooms, according to the Fulton County Board of Commissioners.

With the hope that the center could potentially alleviate hospital emergency rooms, initial plans outlined the initiative would be staffed by Grady Memorial Hospital and the Policing Alternatives and Diversion Program. The initiative is expected to divert 41 people daily from the local jails, detention facilities and emergency rooms.

Director of Community Response Services of Atlanta Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative Chyna Quarker on PAD being awarded funding from the NFL as part of the Inspire Change Initiative.

As part of Inspire Change the league has also awarded funding to five new national grant partners: Atlanta Policing Alternatives & Diversion Initiative (PAD), Chicago's Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement (CARE), CHOOSE 180, Gulf Coast JFCS Community Assistance and Life Liaison Program (CALL), and Peace for DC.

Law Enforcement Action Partnership, Cahoots/White Bird Clinic, Community Based Public Safety Collective, Cure Violence Global, Equal Justice USA , Common Justice, and Impact Justice.

Without an ID, experts say a person can’t get out of homelessness. “You need it for any housing,” said Leni Garner, who works for the Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative or PAD as a care navigator. It’s not just housing -- IDs are needed to get a job, a bank account, a car, and the like.

Moki Macias, the executive director of Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative (PAD), discusses the findings of the Justice Policy Board’s analysis of Fulton County’s jail population that calls for more diversion work to reduce overcrowding.

The partnership between the 911 and 311 call centers are focusing on public indecency calls right now. These are the first types of calls Atlanta 911 operators will immediately send to 311.

From there, supportive services will obtain additional information about the situation and submit a PAD community response referral.

ARPA funding has helped cities and states to either implement or expand their own alternative crisis response systems that best serve the needs of their communities. This year, Atlanta’s City Council allocated $4.5 million in ARPA funding to expand their partnership with PAD, a local nonprofit organization that provides community responder and prearrest diversion services for individuals experiencing issues around mental health, substance use, and homelessness.

“We show up differently than law enforcement, where situations can escalate and someone ends up with a low-level charge and lands in jail. We are trying to shift the response from one of enforcement to one of care.”

PAD’s diversion program works in partnership with the Microsoft Justice Reform Initiative, which supports organizations that are developing alternatives to arrest and incarceration, accelerating new models of public safety and working to expand access to data-driven insights.

Criminal justice experts say the removal of cash bail in Illinois could be an indicator for how other states move forward with systemic reform. The reform bill follows similar efforts in other states, including the Policing Alternatives & Diversion Initiative (PAD) in Atlanta, which launched in 2016 to provide alternatives to arrest people in relation to mental illness, poverty or other issues.

Grand Marshals nominated by Atlanta’s LGBTQ community and chosen by Atlanta Pride Committee (APC) members will be honored during the parade. One of the seven Grand Marshals is the Policing Alternatives & Diversion Initiative (PAD).

The city of Atlanta has chosen a firm to build a new 24/7 diversion center at the city’s detention facility, as it seeks an appraisal of the 11-story downtown building. The City Council on Monday approved a nearly $3 million contract for construction of the new “Center for Diversion Services,” set to open in 2023.

“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.

In addition to the Community of Practice, the City and the Policing Alternatives & Diversion Initiative (PAD) have partnered together to allow citizens in Zone 4, 5 and 6 to make referrals to ATL311 for non-emergency quality of life concerns related to mental health, substance use or extreme poverty. Referral services will be expanded across all zones in June 2021.

Atlanta’s Policing Alternatives & Diversion Initiative (PAD) was born in 2017 out of frustration over the frequency with which police arrest people for crimes of homelessness and poverty, such as public urination. By intervening before arrest, PAD can keep vulnerable community members out of jail for minor offenses and instead offer them support.

A program in Atlanta that offers an alternative to calling the police for non-emergency situations now allows residents to reach the service by simply dialing 311.

Moki Macias, PAD Executive Director, and Karlise Newman, PAD Harm Reduction team specialist, speak with Rose Scott about how the initiative aims to provide an alternative to arrests and incarceration.

The Atlanta Pre-Arrest Diversion Initiative partners with the Atlanta Police Department to divert people subject to arrest. With PAD's help, Kendra Weaver, who spent years battling addiction and homelessness, was placed in housing and a drug treatment program.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Atlanta already has one alternative to jail. The Atlanta/Fulton County Pre-Arrest Diversion Initiative (PAD) is a program for those whose arrests stem from substance use, mental illness, or extreme poverty.

An initiative that offers an alternative to calling the police for minor offenses is growing. It's called Atlanta Pre-Arrest Diversion Services or Atlanta PAD. The group helps keep vulnerable individuals out of the criminal justice system.

Five years ago, after activists defeated an Atlanta City Council proposal to banish convicted prostitutes, they teamed up with officials to create the Pre-Arrest Diversion Initiative, which tries to keep people who commit nonviolent minor crimes like begging and prostitution out of jail.

Moki Macias is acutely aware of the Atlanta jail. She can see it from the window of her new office. Her goal is to keep people out of it.

Atlanta’s version of PAD has a harm reduction philosophy of meeting people where they are and even though the program is just finding its footing, proponents and advocates are committed to the success of its participants.