Marysville Police Chief Rick Smith has the right idea. He wants to get treatment for drug offenders as soon as possible. Not only would that be good for them and society, it would be good for police and courts, too. It would keep get drug offenders out of jail, freeing up space for more-violent criminals. It would free up police time to investigate more-serious cases. And it would free up the courts, which have a terrible backlog of cases.
Smith wants to work with local social service agencies to get that immediate help for drug users before their problems get worse. He’s not sure how to do it and wants input from those experts.
But Smith does not have to re-invent the wheel here. There is a very successful program being used in the Belltown community of Seattle called LEAD, for Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion. The program allows officers to redirect low-level offenders to services, instead of jail and prosecution.
Offenders are diverted to community-based treatment and support services — including housing, health care, job training, treatment and mental health support — instead of processing them through the criminal justice system. LEAD participants work immediately with case managers to access services. LEAD’s goals are to reduce the harm a drug offender causes him or herself, as well as the harm that the individual is causing the surrounding community. The program preserve expensive criminal justice system resources for more-serious offenders.
LEAD differs from other drug programs because it is made at the pre-booking stage, in the hopes of bypassing the costs and time entailed in booking, charging, and requiring court appearances of an individual. Individuals who have certain violent offenses are ineligible.
LEAD is the result of an unusual collaboration among diverse stakeholders. Collaborators include the King County prosecutor, Seattle city attorney, police, sheriff, county executive, mayor, state Department of Corrections, The Defender Association, the ACLU, and community members. The collaboration was motivated by a shared dissatisfaction with the outcomes and costs of traditional drug law enforcement. The incarceration of nonviolent offenders has diverted funds away from other critical investments in communities.
LEAD has contracted with Evergreen Treatment Services.
Evaluation will consider, among other factors, whether LEAD has resulted in reductions in drug use and recidivism, whether LEAD is more cost-effective than traditional criminal justice processing, and whether LEAD has had a positive impact on a community’s quality of life.
An evaluation by the University of Washington in March found that LEAD participants had 58 percent lower odds of a subsequent arrest.
LEAD demonstrates how, through innovation, cities can enhance public safety while building trust between law enforcement and the communities they protect.
Marysville should take the LEAD in Snohomish County to have this or some other diversion program for drug offenders.
