County Breaks Ground On Mental Health Diversion Center In Doylestown

DOYLESTOWN TOWNSHIP, PA — The Bucks County Commissioners broke ground on Wednesday at the future site of the county’s Diversion, Assessment, Restoration, and Treatment (DART) Center in Doylestown Township.

Set to occupy the former site of the Bucks County Women’s Community Corrections Center at 1270 Almshouse Road, the new DART Center will serve adults in the criminal justice system suffering from mental illness with the goal of diverting them from further penetration into the system by reducing recidivism and supporting recovery through treatment and community support.

"We are here today to right a wrong," said Commissioner Vice Chair Diane Ellis-Marseglia. "When you go back to the Civil War there was a nurse turned social worker named Dorthea Dix who discovered there were people with mental illness being kept in jails. She made it her mission to get people into Almshouses and hospitals. And she did a very good job. And that's where people were treated humanely rather than in jail.

"As we know, unfortunately over the years, those hospitals became institutions where many bad things happened. And then someone decided, 'Let's just open the doors and let everyone out who shouldn't be institutionalized. Unfortunately, the government did not make sure they had the resources out there when those people left those jails," said Ellis-Marseglia. "And many, many people have struggled and there has been no place to help them. So, full circle, they are back in our jails.

"Although we would like the state and federal government to help us, Bucks County has decided that we are going to take this on our own and we are going to solve this problem," said Ellis-Marseglia.“This center will join our successful co-responder program, our CIT training initiative, and our drug and mental health courts in not only changing lives for the better but in bringing real value to taxpayers by channeling county resources into real solutions."

The groundbreaking comes three weeks after the commissioners unanimously approved $16 million for the facility’s construction. Funds for the project have been allocated from federal and state grants and other funding streams without the need for county taxpayer dollars.

Bucks County officials break ground for the new DART Center in Doylestown Township. (Bucks County)

A rendering showing the new DART Center in Doylestown Township.

"We're really excited to be breaking ground today for this. We think this is a fantastic addition to what this county offers its residents. And with this we will be helping people who truly need it and who for too long have been forgotten," said Bob Harvie, the chairman of the county commissioners.

The 23,000-square-foot facility will support up to 28 adults at any given time across its three units - a short-term observation unit, a restoration to competency unit, and a residential treatment facility.

The short-term observation unit will provide a safe place for assessment and initial access to treatment. The “restoration to competency” unit will assist those deemed in court to be incompetent to become competent and participate in due process legal proceedings. And the residential treatment facility will provide transitional housing with treatment and daily living skill development to support the successful transition to community living.

"Almost every family at one time is going to struggle with a member who has a mental illness. I know I have," said Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo. "If this facility would have been here when my family member was struggling, she wouldn't have ended up over there," he said pointing to the nearby correctional facility. "She would have ended up here. Even though she is doing well right now, it would have made a big difference."

Joining the commissioners at the groundbreaking were Bernard Griggs, the county's project and diversity officer; Donna Duffy-Bell, the administrator of the county's Behavioral Health/Developmental programs; and David Kratz, the county's director of corrections.

"Today marks the beginning of a special project that will have a lasting impact on our community promoting positive change and hope for a better future," said Griggs. "Together, we are embarking on this journey toward progress and compassion and I am confident the DART Center will be a beacon of light and transformation in our community."

According to Duffy-Bell, the adults who will be served by the new center are individuals who have mental illness and are involved in the criminal justice system.

"Any individual who has contact with the criminal justice system and has a mental illness would be eligible to receive services out of this center," said Duffy-Bell. "It could be somebody involved with law enforcement at some level. It could be somebody who is given bail and released to the center by a magisterial district justice instead of being incarcerated. Or it could be somebody on probation or parole.

"There are many places in the criminal justice system where an individual can interface and we are looking at all those points of contact to utilize this center to provide active treatment, restoration to competency, and rehabilitative supports to get individuals successfully back into the community," said Duffy-Bell.

While the center has been in the planning stages since 2020, Duffy-Bell said the community service gap was first identified in 2016 during a sequential intercept mapping of the county criminal justice system.

"What that looks at is all the different places where an individual can touch the criminal justice system from first contact with law enforcement through incarceration and reentry back into the community," she said.

"Jail is not a place for mentally ill folks, but we're the last stop and we can't say no.," said Kratz, who oversees the county's correctional facilities.

"These are generally not higher-level criminals. These are lower-level criminals. Maybe they are a nuisance in the community. The resources are not there. The police officers have tried and tried and tried, but they do end up in jail," he said. "And jail is not designed to deal with mental illness. We have some great programming and we have a great team of mental health folks, but jail is not a place to get better and get treatment."

The new center, said Kratz, is going to be "an amazing tool for us to have" diverting the mentally ill from incarceration and into a place where they can get the help they need and "return them back into the community where they belong and hopefully not have that criminal record follow them around so they can reengage in society and have a second chance."

The new center will be built from the ground up on the footprint of the former Women's Community Correctional facility, which was demolished earlier this year. It will serve a total capacity of 28 adults at any given time.

Construction is expected to begin in the coming weeks and take about 15 months.