TULSA — The Tulsa Sobering Center on Wednesday celebrated its first year of operation as an alternative for men and women detained for public intoxication.
The center serves as a jail diversion program. City officials say the center has received national attention for "its approach of connecting individuals with a continuum of care with the goal of providing better outcomes for the Tulsa community by reducing the number of adults with mental illness and substance use disorders who are incarcerated."
From May 2018 to May 2019, the center had 767 utilize the facility. Of those people, 73 entered the medically-supervised detoxification program at 12 & 12. Upon completion, 32 of the 73 went into treatment at 12 & 12.
“Operating the Tulsa Sobering Center, in the Hardesty Wing at our main facility, has allowed us to connect participants who suffer with alcoholism or other addictions to our nationally accredited counseling and rehabilitation programs for substance abuse treatment,” Bryan Day, CEO of 12 & 12 said.
268 Tulsa police officers brought people detained for public intoxication to the center instead of the jail, saving officers approximately 3,000 hours, officials said. The Sobering Center allowed officers to return to service for more pressing public safety matters within about 10 minutes instead of going through jail booking processes.
At the discretion of the detaining police officer, adults detained for public intoxication, who have not committed other crimes, are taken to the center for a 10-hour period to "sleep it off." The adults are provided food and information about and access to counseling and rehabilitation programs.
The adults are then released without criminal charges or a record of arrest.
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