The first plan was for police to take children to an assessment center instead of juvenile court detention.

At the center, they and their families would begin to get counseling immediately.

The idea of a place to hold children before they can be charged with juvenile offenses was an argument about handcuffs for the nearly four years that the concept of an assessment center was stuck in discussions and meetings.

But the plan ran afoul of the counselors who thought handcuffing would send the wrong message and didn’t want to force the counseling on the children or families.

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The District Attorney’s office wanted an immediate intervention with handcuffs required by police policy any time police transport someone. Setting up an appointment later wasn’t something that District Attorney Amy Weirich thought was effective.

“Some of the challenge in the early days are going to be that it is still going to be simply a referral system,” she said on the Nov. 12 episode of “Behind The Headlines.”

“It’s not going to be a center where law enforcement can take you in a moment to get that assessment performed,” she said. “Having it there, having it up and running and having the doors open is certainly better than nothing.”

Juvenile Court’s chief probation officer and the director of education for the county administration both said this week on BTH that they’ve now found a way to keep the counseling voluntary and still have some type of leverage with families after a juvenile summons is given by police to a child stopped for a nonviolent offense.

“Now Memphis Police will have the option of taking that summons and on top of it placing what we are calling a deferment letter,” County Education Director Cedrick Gray said on this week’s episode of “Behind The Headlines.”

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The deferment letter gives the child and his or her family 72 hours to get in contact with the center, based at the old Raleigh branch library.

“If we do not hear from the youth and their family within 10 days, then that paperwork continues on its original trajectory for juvenile court,” Gray said, meaning the case is moving toward a hearing in juvenile court.

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“There is a sense of urgency that the youth and their family will have to follow,” he said. “We want to provide this support. But we also know you need to want to help yourself.”

The center is working with children from high schools in the Raleigh area with a goal of expanding beyond that area and handling 200 to 300 referrals next year with more staff, all trained in adverse childhood experiences — or ACES — and working with families.

As Weirich said in November, the goal is a center that is open 24/7.

“We are anticipating a shift from maybe 300 the first year to as many as the capacity can handle after that,” Gray said.

Jerri Green, an assistant county attorney and policy adviser to Harris, calls the approach “new and groundbreaking.”

“There is no place in the country that we know of that is doing it this way,” she said on the same program. “Most places make you go to Juvenile Court — make you go through that process and then be referred. Once you have that touch with the system, it impacts that child for the rest of their lives.”

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Cooperating in the referrals is Bernard Williams, chief probation officer of Memphis-Shelby County Juvenile Court for 12 years.

“My goal is for that child to not even have handcuffs put on them or take a ride at all,” he said. “We want to get involved early on.”

The idea of some kind of later referral with a summons has not been universally applauded.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland has described juvenile court as a “revolving door” and cited juveniles cited with summonses who don’t respond to that and then go on to commit violent crimes.

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Williams said there is a clear line in state law about what requires a child to go through juvenile court versus a diversion from the court.

“Based on state law, if you’ve got a weapons-related charge, you have to go before a magistrate or judge,” he said. “Those are violent crimes.”

Green said the court has no alternative in those cases.

“But there are a number of offenses and actions by youth where we have the ability, we have the discretion,” she said. “Whether it’s the DA, law enforcement or others to be able to intercede early and to divert them away from the juvenile justice system.”

Gray, on the podcast version of the show, said the goal is more than keeping kids out of juvenile court.

“More importantly, we want to give them more options,” he said of children and their families and the development of “behavior plans so they are better able to make decisions on their own.”

“The goal is to be proactive,” Williams said. “And the proactive approach is systemic change.”

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Another change is more juvenile counselors at Memphis Police precincts, recently expanding it to six of the nine precincts. The counselors work with police officers but are also available to talks with families who walk into the precincts seeking help.

“We do have a lot of walk-ins, which law enforcement doesn’t bring the family in,” Williams said. “They come on their own.”