Hey y’all! City Council voted to fully fund PAD Monday. I keep forgetting to post here. Thank your reps! Call Mayor Dickens and encourage him to sign the contract! #PADNotPolitics

ATL Council shouldn’t hide behind the Mayor. Separation of powers exists for a reason. PAD played by the rules to bid for their contract and the public deserves to know which elected officials will honor their consciences and vote for funding the model Atlanta trusts. #PADNotPolitics

Any evaluation of PAD’s effectiveness should take broad view and ask, *is PAD diverting people from facing incarceration simply because they are poor, have substance use issues or unmet mental health needs?* Spoiler alert…they are.

Our 10/7 public comment: youtu.be/F_FItA_bql4?...

The embarrassing smear campaign against PAD, on the basis of imaginary metrics, seems to be coming from a handful of councilmembers who work closest with the mayor. We fact check them here:

youtu.be/7WyxFuRVgCo?si… #PADNotPoliticscs

The flimsy excuse is that “some members” question whether PAD is effective. The problem with this false outrage is that these people ignore whether police cooperate/divert & they place the blame at PAD’s feet. PAD is not a homelessness program. It’s DIVERSION.

In an open records response to @theappeal.org an 11/13 memo from Mayor Dickens‘ office asks the Office of Procurement to close the secret special diversion procurement because no agency bid. Now there is no justification for the PAD contract to not be approved.

www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...

A few facts about how we got here and how the Mayor is manipulating the procurement code to undermine PAD.

Southern Center for Human Rights sent this letter to the DOJ in April, supporting calls for a DOJ investigation. We viewed this as a last resort—catalyzed in part by local governmental indifference about the sheriff’s abuses.

www.schr.org/wp-content/u...