Courts to play key role in Augusta’s homelessness initiative
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - We’re in week three of the new Washington Road and I-20 corridor homelessness initiative, but we’re looking beyond what’s happening on the streets.
The big question is what happens after Richmond County deputies make with these individuals.
The Augusta Judicial Center is going to play a key role in the new initiative to get people experiencing homelessness to the proper resources.
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ability Court is going to be where these individuals will go.
“In those situations, a participant in our drug court, mental health court, or veterans court is a participant who has been charged with a crime and is referred to our program because they meet criteria. They are diverted from traditional prosecution and held able for those charges, but with that, we started to address the root cause of substance abuse and mental health,” said Court Nolan Martin.
After deputies make with people on the street, Martin says the District Attorney’s Office acts as the screen to determine if that person is charged or eligible for ability court.
“They are diverted from traditional prosecution and held able for those charges, but with that, we started to address the root cause of substance abuse and mental health,” said Martin.
Martin says the goal is for the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office to use other resources in the community for help. Those could include social services, the Department of Public Health, and educational facilities in the area.
“If you send someone to prison time after time and you don’t change their paradigm, you don’t change their education, you don’t change their job skills, you don’t change anything about them, they’ll get out and return to the life they once led and that’s the nature of recidivism,” said Martin.
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