In September 2005, the Bureau of Justice Assistance of the U.S. Department of Justice funded ten demonstration projects under its new Community-Based Problem-Solving Criminal Justice Initiative. The following edited excerpt was taken from Seattle’s winning proposal.
The Seattle Municipal Court in partnership with the Seattle City Attorney’s Office proposes to apply the problem-solving philosophy of its recently inaugurated Community Court to its thirty-year old diversion program and provide those first-time offenders who may be headed down the path of further criminal justice system involvement a chance to avoid this result and improve their lives.
The Seattle pre-trial diversion program is one of the oldest diversion systems in the United States. The existing program allows first-time offenders who commit non-violent crimes an opportunity to have those charges dismissed and retain a clean criminal record. Defendants are required only to pay a $75 fee, which is frequently waived, and to not re-offend within 90 days. Although it provides an opportunity to defendants to avoid a criminal conviction, the existing program does little to provide specific assistance to defendants whose criminal behavior may be driven by mental illness, substance abuse, homelessness, or the lack of an education. Under its problem-solving initiative, Seattle aims to use the grant to identify those individuals early on and intervene to provide them with the help and services they need.
In addition, the current diversion program provides no mechanism for defendant accountability to the victims—individuals and communities—who are impacted by criminal behavior. Defendants are required to pay only $75 and not re-offend. While this is efficient for the criminal justice system it often leaves victims feeling abandoned by the criminal justice system.
Under its problem-solving initiative, Seattle seeks to address significant shortfalls in the existing pre-trial diversion program by incorporating it into and leveraging the resources of the Seattle Community Court. Under this proposal, diversion-bound defendants will benefit from social service referrals available through Community Court. Defendants will also pay back the community they offended by performing useful community service work.
For more about Seattle's program, watch this video.