What’s the history behind the development of diversion programs in the U.S.?
Back in the ’70s, prosecutors and judges realized that they were getting all sorts of relatively minor cases coming in, often involving drugs, and just didn’t have the capacity to prosecute them in a timely way. An old idea was resuscitated, the idea that maybe all these people don’t need to be prosecuted, maybe the system itself can be toxic or criminogenic for people coming into it, especially first-time offenders, and perhaps a minor charge should be an opportunity to take those arrestees out of the system and put them on a different track so they can live happily ever after—if they do certain things and abide by a formal contract. That’s a bare bones description of it, and it’s changed somewhat over time. Now when some people talk about diversion, the difference between diversion and probation gets very fuzzy. How would you describe a typical diversion program? Well the first issue is who gets in. And if it’s a pre-adjudication program, the first thing people look at is the charge.
