Police officers in the city of Atlanta and across Fulton County are taking too many people to jail on minor charges like trespassing, instead of bringing them to the county’s new pre-arrest diversion center, according to some elected leaders and advocates for alternatives to incarceration.
Fulton County’s Center for Diversion & Services offers treatment and other services to people who are homeless or have substance use or mental health issues, allowing them to avoid arrest.
Advocates say the initiative provides humane treatment for low-level offenders who otherwise might be left to sit in the Rice Street jail — where a U.S. Department of Justice investigative report found conditions to be abhorrent and unconstitutional…