Overview
“Diversions” in the context of substance use disorders and criminal justice systems refer to alternative options compared to incarceration that can be less disruptive to someone’s long-term recovery or quality of life.
The American Bar Association (ABA) provides several standardized definitions for diversion programs:
“(a) ‘Diversion’ refers to any opportunity for a person to avoid arrest, to decline or reduce charges, to avoid a conviction, or to reduce a sentence, by fulfilling a prescribed set of conditions, by agreeing to a referral to services, or by receiving assistance or release with no further criminal consequences. ‘Diversion’ also refers to efforts to bring a public health approach to incidents traditionally addressed by the criminal legal system, or formalized efforts to identify circumstances in which further criminal legal system intervention is outweighed by concerns regarding over-incarceration and other harms…A program may utilize various levels of responses in the form of community service, restorative justice, mediation, counseling, treatment, or any other appropriate arrangement.”
Diversion programs can be further split based on certain criteria. The ABA further categorizes diversion programs based on the point of intervention and the type of facilitator:
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Early diversion: these programs step in before prosecution begins, and they include community-first programs that redirect criminal interventions to community service providers and peer recovery, law enforcement diversion before and after arrests or bookings, and pre-filing diversion programs that happen before the initiation of a prosecution
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Pre-plea diversion programs: these programs occur after prosecution is initiated, but the prosecutor is willing to dismiss or file lesser charges if the defendant or accused participates successfully.
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Post-plea diversion programs: these programs allow a defendant or accused to dismiss a conviction, reduce charges, or reduce sentences if they participate in the program. However, the ABA notes that this “does not deviate significantly from the traditional criminal legal system. As a result, these programs tend to build in features of the criminal legal system that are often contrary to the objectives of diversion, and which lead to significant collateral consequences. For example, empirical study of post-plea diversion reveals a significant number of participants are subject to more severe penalties than similarly situated individuals who are not subject to diversion, particularly when the participant is a person of color.” 1