The Role of Traditional Pretrial Diversion in the Age of Specialty Treatment Courts (2007)

Abstract

This document addresses just the traditional pretrial diversion and specialty treatment court programs that do not require a guilty plea as the price of admission to the program. It seeks to show the continued benefit of and useful role for pretrial diversion in the age of specialty treatment courts. Through many recent evaluations of specialty treatment courts we are learning more about what works and – more importantly – for whom it works. Much of the research on traditional diversion is dated well before the advent of specialty treatment courts, leaving no empirical guidance on how traditional pretrial diversion and specialty treatment courts can complement each other to provide a range of problem-solving options to match the range of problems that are presented. By better understanding how traditional pretrial diversion and specialty treatment courts are similar and how they are different, the role that each can play will become more clear. Since there is no one model for pretrial diversion or one model for any of the different types of specialty treatment courts, the practices of these approaches are described in general terms. These descriptions will not hold true for all jurisdictions.