Diversion programs and incarceration alternatives

Strategy overview

Creating alternatives to jail and prison: Criminal justice diversion programs and incarceration alternatives allow individuals to avoid jail or prison at various points in their interactions with the criminal justice system, from the moment of engagement with police through sentencing. These approaches intend to reduce recidivism and generate major cost savings by enabling residents to remain in their communities while providing various forms of accountability, engagement, and support services.
Serving a broad population: Diversion programs can be tailored to a wide range of residents. Many initiatives focus on juvenile diversion, those with a drug or alcohol addiction, or primary care-givers. Generally, eligibility for diversion is restricted to those charged with a non-violent crime.
Providing off-ramps before trial: Many diversions from incarceration occur before an individual faces trial. During initial engagement with police, a diversion effort may involve partnering with a mental health clinic to provide crisis de-escalation and treatment rather than booking; at the moment of charging, a diversion program led by courts or prosecutors may include education, job training, and/or restorative justice approaches.
Connecting individuals to services instead of incarceration: After charges have been filed, some criminal justice systems provide additional pathways away from incarceration. Oftentimes, these are facilitated by alternative court systems or sentencing programs, such as drug courts, problem-solving courts, or day reporting. Instead of traditional trials and sentencing, these approaches (which often require a guilty plea) focus on connecting participants to services like treatment for addiction, case management, and job training.
Reimagining juvenile justice: Many diversion programs are designed for individuals under age 18, for whom legal structures may allow more flexibility than for adults. Like adult programs, juvenile diversion initiatives take many forms and are of varying intensities. Approaches may include restorative justice approaches, community service, treatment, skill-building programs, youth courts, and more. These programs typically require a high degree of engagement with partners outside of the criminal justice system, such as families, schools, community groups, and social services agencies.

Issue Areas: Justice and public safety

Post-secondary education and workforce development
Outcomes: Supportive neighborhoods
Target Population: At-risk individuals
Key Stakeholders: Mayor or County Executive's Office, Local Judges, Human Services Department, Sheriff/Police Chief's Office, Program Evaluation Team

What evidence supports this strategy?

While court-based diversion programs and incarceration alternatives have been rigorously evaluated, results have varied significantly. Multiple comprehensive meta-analyses found limited, but promising evidence of effectiveness when evaluated by robust methods such as randomized control trials.

A 2016 meta-analysis of 99 studies of juvenile restorative justice programs found that the programs showed a moderate reduction in future delinquent behavior relative to traditional juvenile court processing. However, results were smaller across randomized control trial studies.
Synthesized research on restorative justice practices found that results are promising for recidivism for offenders and outcomes for victims such as satisfaction.
Meta-analyses examining the effect of adult drug courts found that program participants were less likely to recidivate compared to offenders who did not participate.
Meta-analyses evaluating the impact of juvenile diversion programs produced mixed results, with some evidence that diversion could reduce the likelihood of recidivism.
A 2018 quasi-experimental study providing the first causal estimate on adult diversion found that the programs cut recidivism in half over 10 years and improved employment rates by 53 percent, with effects persisting after 20 years.

Is this strategy right for my community?

Offering diversion programs and alternatives to incarceration has been shown to improve outcomes predictive of upward mobility. These outcomes, identified by the Urban Institute, are safety from trauma, safety from crime, and just policing.

City and county leaders can assess local conditions for each of these outcomes using the metrics below, identified by the Urban Institute. This assessment can be used to determine whether this strategy is appropriate for their community. (Note: these metrics are a starting point for self-assessment and are not intended to be comprehensive.)

All cities and counties with populations over 75,000 can receive a customized data sheet here.

Measuring safety from trauma in your community: Examine the number of deaths due to injury per 100,000 people. These data are available from the National Center for Health Statistics’ Mortality File and the CDC’s WONDER database.

Measuring safety from crime in your community: Examine reported property crimes per 100,000 people and reported violent crimes per 100,000 people. These data are available from the Federal Bureau of Investigations’ Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

Measuring just policing in your community: Examine the number of juveniles arrested per 100,000. High rates of juvenile arrests provide a strong indicator of overall system involvement and over-policing. These data are available from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Crime Data Explorer.

Best practices in implementation

Cultivate a broad coalition: Diversion programs typically require a range of partners, including the courts, law enforcement agencies, public health departments, social service providers, and community-based organizations. These stakeholders often each play a leading role at different points in program delivery. A robust, vocal coalition can enable stronger diversion programming and help build broader support for alternatives to incarceration, which often faces ideological opposition from some policymakers and/or residents
Focus programming on specific transition points: Unlike many evidence-based initiatives, diversions from incarceration are rarely comprehensive. Instead, programs with a strong track record of impact are typically available only at certain moments in the criminal justice process, such as pre-arrest, pre-charging, or pre-sentencing. While there may be some overlap — especially in partners delivering the model — high-impact programs are typically designed and administered independently.
Provide access to support services: Diversion away from incarceration should provide concrete opportunities for participants to address their most pressing needs, like stable income or addiction treatment. It is therefore crucial to build programs around the provision of support services that can address those needs. This may include employment-focused programming such as workforce training, career coaching, and job placement, or behavioral health services like case management, cognitive behavioral therapy, and substance abuse treatment.
Invest in robust outcome tracking, communicate successes: Diversion programs are a relatively nascent evidence-based practice; oftentimes, residents are not familiar with the significant impact of effective initiatives. Therefore, it is especially crucial in this realm to invest in strong program evaluation and outcome tracking capacity in multiple areas, including public safety, cost savings, and program effectiveness (i.e. recidivism rates, stable employment, etc.). This information can be used externally to boost public support, funding, and partner engagement. Such data analysis can also be used internally to refine and strengthen programming and create a culture of continuous improvement.

Evidence-based examples

	Outcome Area
Cognitive behavioral therapy for offenders Seeks to advance behavior change among incarcerated individuals and those on probation	Stable and healthy families High-quality employment	Promising Strong Proven
Drug courts Incarceration alternative requiring supervision, drug treatment and testing, and sanctions for drug offenders	Stable and healthy families Supportive neighborhoods	Promising Strong Proven
Family treatment drug courts Incarceration alternative including substance abuse testing, judicial monitoring, and support services to parents of children in the child welfare system	Stable and healthy families Supportive neighborhoods	Promising Strong Proven
Functional family therapy Clinic- or school-based short-term intervention program for youth who have been referred by juvenile justice, mental health, school, or child welfare systems	Stable and healthy families	Promising Strong Proven
Juvenile diversion programs Diverts juvenile offenders from the formal justice system, with focus on reducing recidivism and further problem behavior	Elementary and middle school success High school graduation Stable and healthy families	Promising Strong Proven
Multisystemic therapy for juvenile offenders Intensive intervention for serious juvenile offenders in which a small team of therapists work with youth offenders and their families regularly	Elementary and middle school success High school graduation Stable and healthy families	Promising Strong Proven
Restorative justice programs Alternative justice approach using mediation, peacemaking circles, and family group conferences	Elementary and middle school success High school graduation Supportive neighborhoods	Promising Strong Proven

Learn more:

Vera Institute of Justice - Diversion Programs, Explained Center for Court Innovation - Diversion Overview U.S. Dept. of Justice - Diversion Program Grant Recipients Urban Institute - Mapping Diversion Programs National Drug Court Institute - Training Guide