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CJAC urges 1,800-bed benchmark, highlights diversion resources and 60-bed behavioral care center
Summary
The Criminal Justice Advisory Council told the oversight committee that community diversion investments (a mental-health center, restoration center and Diversion Hub) and a Behavioral Care Center with 60 beds should be coordinated with a recommended 1,800-bed facility footprint to balance capacity and diversion.
Melissa Walton, Executive Director of the Criminal Justice Advisory Council (CJAC), told the committee that CJAC supports a planning benchmark of roughly 1,800 total beds while emphasizing community diversion and treatment investments that will reduce demand for detention.
Walton outlined community projects coming online — a mental-health center breaking ground next week, a restoration center and a recently opened Diversion Hub — and said the Behavioral Care Center will provide screening and faster access to community partners that should reduce duplicate screenings and improve transitions to treatment. "We are going to stick with our recommendation of 1,800," she said, referencing CJAC's 2021 assessment.
CJAC and other speakers emphasized that the BCC may be limited (the BCC was described in the meeting as having 60 beds with 30-day maximum stays) but that the larger campus could succeed if community services and diversion programs are expanded in parallel. Committee members discussed anchoring ballot language to a hard asset scope (bed count or square footage) to prevent unanticipated expansion and to ensure the public understands what is being financed.
The committee’s motion incorporated CJAC’s concerns by recommending caps on size and funding and by asking that an expanded oversight committee include credentialed professionals to monitor both construction and expenditures.
