Funded By
Prosecutor-led diversion toward health care is a key alternative to incarceration that can be pursued by disposing of a criminal charge. Diversion has many potential benefits, such as deflection from the criminal justice system for those who would be best served elsewhere, shrinking the criminal justice system, providing a quick resolution for victims, and establishing a connection to services for defendants. However, the most critical measures of success for prosecutor-led diversion efforts are not widely understood nor consistently tracked, and prosecutors are not well-resourced for this purpose.
This project is an opportunity to give prosecutors proven solutions to challenges that incarceration have been unable to address while improving legitimacy in the criminal justice system.
A multidisciplinary approach to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of multiple prosecutor offices.
Assist prosecutors ability to build capacity to make data-informed decisions, promote public health, public safety, and racial equity.
“I went against the grain, against the advice of people who I respect and love, and I took a chance. ”
—Fort Bend County District Attorney Brian Middleton on prosecutor diversions
Click here to read a Q&A on prosecutor decision-making.
Click here to learn more about Arnold Ventures’ funding of prosecutor-focused research.
I went against the grain, against the advice of people who I respect and love, and I took a chance. ”
-Fort Bend County District Attorney Brian
Middleton on Prosecutor Diversions
Overreliance upon mechanisms of social control for historically underresourced communities has yielded racial and economic disparities, as well as poor health and safety outcomes, at an estimated $1.2 trillion dollar burden to individuals and the community at large. Improving access and coordinating interventions across health and justice systems will prevent threats to achieving equity, public safety, and wellbeing.
Prosecutor-led diversion toward health care is a key alternative to incarceration that can be pursued by disposing of a criminal charge. Diversion has many potential benefits, such as deflection from the criminal justice system for those who would be best served elsewhere, shrinking the criminal justice system, providing a quick resolution for victims, and establishing a connection to services for defendants. However, the most critical measures of success for prosecutor-led diversion efforts are not widely understood nor consistently tracked, and prosecutors are not well-resourced for this purpose.
people or 39% of the prison population are incarcerated for reasons primarily unrelated to public safety.
spent by state legislators on prisons and jails.
of criminal cases are processed by local prosecutors.
Jennifer Wyatt Bourgeois is a Center for Justice Research Postdoctoral Fellow. Her research interests include risk and resilient factors associated with children and youth impacted by family and/or parental incarceration, the intersection of race, class, and gender within the criminal justice system, criminal justice program evaluation, and the intersection of criminal justice and forensic science.
