Building a Sustainable Center to Support the Reimagining of Travis County’s Criminal Justice System

Corwin Hunter
2021-2022 | Travis County - Office of the County Judge
Project
The Travis County Jail is one of the largest mental health providers in the county, with around 34% of the jail’s roughly 1,434 inmates having a mental health designation. The County has delivered and unveiled public safety reforms that emphasize making their communities safer by investing in support services outside of the carceral system, including expanding diversion eligibility. FUSE will partner with Travis County to launch the Travis Center, a fully functioning mental health diversion center that provides community-based preventive services to help people avoid interaction with the criminal legal system. FUSE will primarily work to implement a sustainability plan for the proposed center, connecting directly with community members to ensure their needs are prioritized in service delivery and forming a roadmap to establish fiscal longevity. FUSE will play an integral role in ensuring the Center supports those experiencing homelessness and addresses residents’ unmet mental health and substance-use disorders before they ever interact with law enforcement.