BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the end of an October 6 policy meeting, the Alachua County Commission voted to meet with the School Board to discuss purchasing the Old Terwilliger property below appraisal value and requested more information about the reasons for the high number of people in the jail.
Public comment: Mental health responders could reduce arrestsDuring general public comment at the end of the meeting, Leigh Scott said he would “love to see our community get to a place where we have a standardized 24/7 response to mental health, homelessness, and substance use” and advocated for a program that can dispatch mental health professionals in response to 911 calls without a police response. He said he screened his film Uncarcerated to GRACE Marketplace staff yesterday, “and I said, ‘Raise your hand if you’ve needed a crisis response, but instead you got the police, and somebody ended up going to jail.’ And everyone in the room raised their hand. ‘Raise your hand if somebody got trespassed from here and now no longer can get services, but if you had a crisis response, that would not have happened.’”…