Of the 1,045 inmates housed in the Bibb County jail in late October, Sheriff David Davis estimates more than 300 of them likely need mental health services or drug and alcohol recovery assistance.

“It’s common knowledge, about 30% of the people who are incarcerated have some type of mental health or substance abuse problem or substance abuse concerns,” Davis said Thursday at the River Edge Community Roundtable.

To combat those statistics, the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office partnered with River Edge Behavioral Health to tackle those issues within the jail and launch new initiatives to reach the vulnerable before they are arrested, such as the co-responder program where a mental health professional accompanies law enforcement on calls and a new focus on assisting young families. 

Through a renewed partnership launched last summer with River Edge, they provide inmate counseling and treatment inside the jail, which is more effective than telemedicine, the sheriff said. 

“When you have someone who’s going through a mental health crisis and someone who is being disruptive and they have an issue, that’s when you need to sit across from them. You need to look at them because there are things that they are doing, and things that you may not see in just that little visual part on the screen that give you clues as to what their issue may be, and it gives you clues as to what their issues may be, and it gives you clues as to what you can do to help that individual. So, that has been a real plus for us all,” Davis said. 

In addition to those basic services, River Edge also provides a co-responder to accompany deputies on 911 calls and assist with PROP, the new Positive Restorative Outreach Program to assist in cases involving young children and their parents. 

Davis said the community already has several programs that address issues with teens, but earlier interventions can help the whole family avoid later pitfalls in raising children.

Often criminal issues with older youth have roots in childhood, he said. 

“What happened to make a 13-year-old go out and want to steal a car in the middle of the night and have a gun? Something impacted that person’s life when they were 4, 5 and 6 years old,” Davis said. 

In 2022, the Georgia General Assembly passed the Georgia Behavioral Health and Peace Officer Co-responder Act that established a protocol for behavioral health professionals to respond alongside public safety officers to try to de-escalate tense situations. 

Through grant funds, River Edge hired a co-responder to work with the sheriff’s office on these types of cases and assess the needs of individuals who may be a threat to themselves or others. 

The co-responder identifies the services needed to diffuse the situation.

“If they have to come to the jail, we already know what kinds of programs and what kind of assistance they will need, but also helps divert those individuals away from jail to get them connected to the River Edge system, to where they can get that support when you have individuals that have developmental disabilities or have individuals that have coping skills or interpersonal relationship skills,” Davis said. 

Many people deputies encounter are already clients of River Edge. 

“Last year, about 8,000 new individuals came through our door,” said River Edge CEO Cass Hatcher. “But collectively, if you put all of our programs, our day programs, our group homes, our residential programs, about 25,000 people annually have received some type of services from River Edge last year.” 

Davis said that the River Edge counselors working with the inmates are also helping keep inmates from returning to jail. 

“The will help them in the jail setting and then transition them out into the free world, as they call it, and help them in that setting. And so it’s helped us help cut down some of the recidivism because River Edge and our partners are able to make sure that they’re staying on their medicine as they should,” Davis said. 

Crisis services and diagnostics

In addition to working directly together on these crime-reduction efforts, River Edge and the State of Georgia are building their newest facility in the sheriff’s backyard. 

By the end of March, the new 36,000-square-foot Crisis Services and Diagnostic Center is expected to open at 1241 Rev. J.L. Mills Senior Way. The land leased from Macon-Bibb County is next door to the sheriff’s Outreach Center that moved into the old Macon Rescue Mission a few years ago.  

The new first-of-its-kind crisis and diagnostic facility for the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health is currently under construction a street over from the back of the jail. In conjunction with River Edge, the state’s facility will serve the public with a crisis services wing and a medical diagnostic center operated through a partnership with Mercer University School of Medicine. 

The range of healthcare services provided will include behavioral health assessments and psychiatry along with neurology, ophthalmology, dentistry and speech and language pathology. 

Clients with an intellectual and developmental disability, or IDD, often have difficulty finding a hospital to threat them, said Greta O’Dell, River Edge’s director of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

Patients may be able to stay for 90 days in clinic beds in that new center. 

“Because of the complex needs that those individuals usually bring with them is very difficult, in any given day, there’s about 30 IDD individuals that are sitting in emergency rooms around the state of Georgia,” O’Dell said. “And so they’re really hoping that this will fill that need.”

— Civic Journalism Senior Fellow Liz Fabian covers Macon-Bibb County government entities for The Macon Newsroom and can be reached at [email protected] or 478-301-2976.

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