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Cuyahoga County has opened a new diversion center to offer addiction and mental health treatment to people who otherwise might go to jail.

Numerous local officials cut the ribbon Tuesday on the long-discussed 50-bed facility on East 55th Street, south of Payne Avenue.

Initially, the center will offer services for people who encounter police on nonviolent, misdemeanor offenses, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O鈥橫alley said.

鈥淭hese are generally people that police just don鈥檛 know what they can do with, and generally they have just brought to jail because there鈥檚 no place else to put them,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 not the answer, the answer is to get these people healthy.鈥�

If police pick up someone with apparent mental illness or substance use disorder, officers can call a hotline run by the nonprofit Frontline Services to determine if the diversion center will take the person.

Last December, Cuyahoga County Council approved a $9.2 million, two-year contract with the Cuyahoga County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board to run the center. The county is funding the project with proceeds from opioid lawsuit settlements.

鈥淭his is a major culture change,鈥� Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 changing the culture from a total incarceration to treating people.鈥�

Budish is already talking about an expansion. He鈥檇 like to refurbish the old juvenile justice center at East 22nd Street and Central Avenue 鈥� a better location near the highway, he said, for law enforcement driving in from around the county. 

The city of Cleveland鈥檚 top prosecutor, Aqueelah Jordan, said the center will offer an alternative to families who felt they had no other way to help loved ones in crisis than to see them taken to jail.

鈥淲e are able to say to those community members, who we are meant to serve, 鈥榃e have another way for you to help your family members,鈥� she said.

Activists with Greater Cleveland Congregations, a faith-based community organizing group, pushed for neighborhood mental health centers during the 2017 fight over public financing for Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse renovations. A string of deaths at the county jail in the following years 鈥� and a scathing 2018 U.S. Marshals Service report 鈥� added pressure to reduce the jail population.

Numerous GCC members attended Tuesday鈥檚 ribbon-cutting, including Donna Weinberger, the group鈥檚 criminal justice coordinator.

鈥淲e see this facility as only the beginning,鈥� she said, 鈥渢he beginning of a whole continuum of diversion programs to keep mentally ill and addicted people out of the jail.鈥�