Our county’s jails became the state’s mental health hospitals. That burden has gone on for far too long,” Tillery said. In Atlanta alone, officers respond to roughly 19 mental health calls every day. Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said options for placing people in crisis are limited. “We have limited places we can take individuals in a health crisis,” Schierbaum said. Earlier this month, a federal court released Georgia from a 16-year ban on building facilities of this type. Senate Republicans quickly added the line item to this year’s budget before passing it Friday. Sheriffs and police chiefs watching from the gallery applauded after the vote. Members of the House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee traveled across the state, engaging with key stakeholders and experts to craft legislation to tackle affordability and accountability in insurance. Not all lawmakers supported the measure. Democratic State Rep. Imani Barnes said the approach repeats past mistakes. “We do not continue to build to further institutionalize. Let’s put money into a more positive way of addressing mental health,” Barnes said. Barnes is pushing her own legislation — the EmPATH Act — which would create specia
