Yesterday, the Mayor of Houston announced plans for a new Sobering Center, where law enforcement can take public intoxication (PI) cases to sober up, instead of using officer time to book and charge PIs and jail space as a place to sleep it off. The center is set to be operational by the end of 2012.
A quick look shows sobering centers, usually run in conjunction with a local substance abuse center, are already operational in Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Portland, among other cities. Houston will pay the Star of Hope Mission $1.5 million a year to operate the 84-bed facility. Currently, Houston manages 19,000 PI cases a year in the city jail, at an estimated cost of $4 to 6 million—or 16 to 24%—of the city’s already strapped annual jail budget.
The economics are obvious and a win-win for everyone, including overworked officers and overcrowded jails. Will the fact that these PIs have an automatic touch point with a treatment-oriented group help spark more long-term behavior change in what are arguably chronic drinkers? While Star of Hope is a homeless shelter, the City of Houston police department also plans to move their mental health facilities to the new center, and a brief intervention for PIs seems to be in the plans.
Will officers be more inclined to bring people to the Sobering Center, instead of leaving them be in order to avoid the time and bureaucracy of booking them into jail and charging them with a crime? The facility will have 84 beds, while Houston historically averages 52 PIs a night to-date. Texas is known for being a trailblazer when it comes to tackling jail and prison overcrowding, and this seems to be another great example. Let us know what you think.
