PROGRAM EVALUATIONS

Evaluation of a diversion program is essential for measuring its outputs and impacts in a particular community. Collecting and preserving relevant data, identifying appropriate performance measures, and tracking the number and types of cases being diverted, along with additional outcome markers provides essential information about a program’s costs and benefits. Several such evaluations have been undertaken in an effort to track the development of diversion programs across the country.

• “From Diversion Experiment to Policy Movement: A Case Study of Prosecutorial Innovation,” Hung-En Sung & Steven Belenko (2006): A 2006 case study of the New York-based Drug Treatment Alternative-to-Prison (DTAP) initiative, a prosecutor-led program that diverts repeat felony drug offenders from prison to residential treatment. (http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1043986206292368)
• “Audit of the Department’s Use of the Pretrial Diversion and Diversion-Based Court Programs as Alternatives to Incarceration” (2016): A comprehensive 2016 federal audit of the Department of Justice’s Smart on Crime initiative, which encouraged federal prosecutors in appropriate cases to consider alternatives to incarceration such as pretrial diversion and diversion-based court programs. (https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2016/a1619.pdf)