Search results
Exit ramps
- Diversion is a broad term referring to “ exit ramps ” that move people away from the criminal legal system, offering an alternative to arrest, prosecution, and a life behind bars.
www.vera.org/diversion-programs-explained
People also ask
What is a diversion program?
What is a 'diversion' in criminal justice?
Is diversion to treatment a new concept in the criminal justice system?
What is pre-police diversion?
What are the different types of diversion programs?
Are diversion programs a viable alternative to a criminal justice system?
Diversion programs allow criminal justice actors to send defendants out of the court system, compelling them instead to attend treatment programs, participate in educational opportunities, and/or perform community service. These programs exist for both adult and juvenile offenders.
Instead of sending police to respond to certain 911 calls, pre-police diversion programs, such as crisis hotlines, use civilian responders to address community problems, eliminating a response from law enforcement.
The decision to divert pre-arrest resides with law enforcement officers. This type of diversion is commonly referred to as police-led diversion, and occurs when law enforcement officers encounter circumstances that suggest that avoiding the criminal justice system altogether serves the best interests of the community and
Diversion is not the same as community corrections – but it is presented in this chapter, as an action that effectively keeps a person in the community. Diversion is a process whereby an individual, at some stage, is diverted from continuing on in the formal justice process.
- Exit 1: Community-Based Services
- Exit 2: Police-Led Interventions
- Exit 3: Prosecutor-Led Interventions
- Exit 4: judge-led Interventions
- Exit 5: Alternatives to Incarceration
- Acknowledgements
- About The Authors
- About The Prison Policy Initiative
As the Civil Rights Corps notes, “You shouldn’t need to be arrested, let alone prosecuted and jailed, to receive social services.” Most policing has little to do with real threats to public safety:The vast majority of people arrested repeatedly are not actually violent, and are more likely to simply have economic and health disadvantages that put t...
Some diversion initiatives happen at the “pre-arrest” stage, allowing people to avoid the consequences of arrest and booking. These programs instruct or empower police officers not to arrest in certain situations, such as when someone with a substance use disorder violates a drug law. Instead, officers impose a lighter sanction such as a warning or...
Pre-charge diversion initiatives enable prosecutors to postpone filing charges, and instead require the individual to complete a program or fulfill a set of requirements. Successful completion of a prosecutor-led program results in no charges, but failure to fulfill the requirements of the program means prosecutors can resume the normal court proce...
Even after a prosecutor chooses to bring charges, there may still be an opportunity for diversion at the court level. Problem-solving courts are intended to divert people with substance use or mental health disorders, and sometimes other circumstances, linking them to treatment and requiring them to meet certain conditions after they’ve entered a p...
The final exit before incarceration represents alternatives to incarceration, which are not diversion programs but still allow defendants to avoid confinement. These options, offered at sentencing, allow individuals to avoid or shorten time behind bars. However, participants still end up with a criminal conviction, along with all the negative conse...
All Prison Policy Initiative reports are collaborative endeavors, and this report is no different, building on an entire movement’s worth of research and strategy. For this report, we wish to single out the contributions of Prison Policy Initiative alumna Alexi Jones, whose research into diversion programs formed the basis of this report and made i...
Leah Wang is a Research Analyst at the Prison Policy Initiative. She is the author of the organization’s two recent briefings on the rise in deaths in state prisons and local jails. Prior to joining the Prison Policy Initiative, Leah was an analyst at the Massachusetts Department of Correction, and spent several years teaching and working with pris...
The non-profit, non-partisan Prison Policy Initiative was founded in 2001 to expose the broader harm of mass criminalization and spark advocacy campaigns to create a more just society. Through accessible, big-picture reports, the organization helps the public engage more fully in criminal justice reform. Its reports Does our county really need a bi...
OCT. 2021 – Diversion and deflection programs are highly effective at preventing recidivism, decreasing incarceration, and keeping the limited resources of courts and law enforcement focused on true public safety threats.
Jul 13, 2019 · Successful strategies require the participation of both law enforcement officers and individuals with a substance use disorder (SUD). This study relies on interviews and focus groups to explore the perceptions and attitudes of these two different populations about non-arrest programs.
