How a brand new Shelby County facility might deal with public well being, security and justice
4 Shelby County Commissioners traveled Monday to Nashville together with officers from Shelby County Common Classes and Shelby County Corrections to tour the Davidson County Residential Drug Courtroom and Davidson County Behavioral Care Middle.
The hope, based on Commissioner Erika Sugarmon, is that Shelby County can construct a facility to accommodate The Shelby County Public Well being, Security and Justice Middle. The power would home an array of providers that search to deal with elements of public security and well-being, based on Sugarmon.
“Hopefully what it means is that when we get to Davidson County and take a look at their amenities, we are able to garner a few of their help, in addition to some concepts and convey it again residence to Shelby County,” Sugarmon mentioned earlier than Monday’s journey. “As a result of you realize, public well being and security and all these items, psychological well being are large points right here. However we do not have a facility to embody all of these items below one roof, and in order that’s the concept.”
Mayor Lee Harris instructed The Business Attraction in April that about $2.7 million has already been put aside for the challenge, however mentioned it may very well be as a lot as $5 million put aside, “relying on the way you depend.”
Chairwoman Miska Clay Bibbs, Commissioners Charlie Caswell and Britney Thornton and a number of different workers members from Shelby County Authorities went on the journey to Nashville together with Finance and Price range Director Michael Thompson. Danielle Mitchell, Common Classes Civil Decide and board member of the Shelby County Drug Courtroom, additionally went on the journey and mentioned she was curious to see the partnership between the court docket and drug rehabilitation amenities.
Mitchell mentioned that having providers and help multi function place is “extraordinarily useful.”
“It is identical to once you go to the physician, like do you need to go to the chiropractor and the rheumatologist and, you realize, it is simpler when you can have all of your specialties in a single place,” Mitchell mentioned.
The power would have a Psychological Well being Courtroom, a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab satellite tv for pc workplace, workplaces for state probation officers, state legal professional generals, county public defenders, rehabilitation packages, and different public security initiatives. Whereas the placement just isn’t picked out but, and funding has not been allotted to it but, Sugarmon mentioned she hopes the previous Business Attraction constructing at 495 Union Ave. may very well be an possibility.
“It is cheaper to repair one thing up versus construct from the bottom up. Nevertheless, we do have a Plan B and Plan C, however this (The previous Business Attraction constructing) is a perfect location for what we envision,” Sugarmon mentioned.
The previous Business Attraction Constructing has been subdivided into the workplace house and the warehouse house. Each areas are nonetheless at the moment on the market, however Sugarmon mentioned {that a} portion of the constructing is at the moment below contract.
The Davidson County Residential Drug Courtroom and Davidson County Behavioral Care Middle opened its doorways in 2020 in an effort to “decriminalize” psychological well being “upon arrival” on the Nashville Downtown Detention Middle.
People who find themselves arrested and accepted into the 30-day program spend their time in a facility that’s separate from the jail and is just linked by way of a single hallway. The folks behind this system say those that full it combine into life higher than those that are usually incarcerated, and so they can have their costs dropped.
In this system’s first two years being lively, from September 2020 till September 2022, the Behavioral Care Middle introduced in 711 folks. Of these residents, 509 had been efficiently discharged and 171 had been deemed unsuccessful, together with those that returned to the jail or bonded out of jail.
The costs these folks had been going through had been a few 50/50 cut up between misdemeanors and felonies. Knowledge from the Behavioral Care Middle’s first two years returned a 29% recidivism charge, which is 17% decrease than the Tennessee common of 46%. However Davidson County Sheriff Daron Corridor and Behavioral Care Middle Psychological Well being Technician Serita Gaines each instructed The Business Attraction they would favor residents return to the middle than find yourself in jail or jail.
Brooke Muckerman covers Shelby County Authorities for The Business Attraction. She may be reached at 901-484-6225, Brooke.Muckerman@commercialappeal.com and adopted on X @BrookeMuckerman.
