From KERA News:
Joe Jernigan didn’t have to go to jail. He chose to, he said.
This past October, a police officer was writing him a ticket after he stole a bottle of wine from a convenience store, but he asked to go to jail instead, Jernigan recalled. He needed to sober up, and he needed help.
“I’ve reached the point where I was no longer safe to myself, you know?” Jernigan said. “The last thing I want to do is be involved with someone else getting hurt because of my actions.”
In jail, Jernigan found an unexpected alternative to incarceration, called the Tarrant County Mental Health Jail Diversion Center. It is a facility where low-level offenders with mental illness or substance use issues can get treatment instead of jail time.
Jernigan transferred out of the jail and into the center — a former assisted living facility tucked into Fort Worth’s Fairmount neighborhood, just around the corner from the popular shops and restaurants on Magnolia Avenue.