Diversion programs would help save Kansas families, state resources

Over 40 years in the past, Kansas lawmakers required the state’s prosecutors to create “diversion” applications, whereby individuals charged with sure lower-level crimes might keep away from a prison conviction by getting drug or psychological well being remedy, working a job or just staying out of bother.

Again then, the Legislature made the commonsense dedication that these applications served the “pursuits of justice” by lifting individuals up, not locking them up.

Nonetheless, as tough-on-crime rhetoric changed smarter approaches like diversion by way of the Nineteen Eighties and Nineties, many prosecutors in Kansas and throughout the nation have reduce on this worthwhile instrument.

That’s why, in 2017, we sued the county lawyer in Montgomery County, Kansas, for failing to inform defendants of their diversion choices. And this week, underneath the load of that swimsuit, new management on the workplace agreed to replace their insurance policies, defend poor defendants from steep diversion charges and, most significantly, broaden diversion eligibility to these in want.

We’re thrilled about this settlement, however don’t take our phrase for it. Wyandotte County District Lawyer Mark Dupree agrees: “This settlement is in keeping with the perfect practices of district lawyer workplaces throughout the state and throughout the nation, and past. Our workplace hopes increasingly district attorneys undertake this posture.”

Diversion isn’t only for the individuals receiving assist. It’s for all of us.

Kansas and the nation are working by way of main points from gun violence to highschool funding to the continued fallout of the pandemic. And but, regardless of rhetoric from many prosecutors in regards to the significance of addressing our severe crime, 80% — sure, 80% — of their dockets are sometimes dedicated to misdemeanors.

These priorities are all unsuitable.

Increasing diversion in all places will permit us to save cash on these low-level prosecutions; preserve costly and family-destroying jail stays as little as potential; and focus assets on the largest points — together with stopping harms earlier than they occur.

Certainly, prosecutors can go farther, declining sure expenses altogether to allow them to give attention to extra severe stuff.

However increasing diversion is a crucial step down that street, and we hope that each one prosecutors be a part of us on it.

Sharon Brett is authorized director on the ACLU of Kansas. Somil Trivedi is a senior workers lawyer within the Prison Regulation Reform Venture, working intently with the ACLU’s Marketing campaign for Good Justice.