Articles

Prosecutor-Led Diversion and Deferred Prosecution: Building Safe, Consistent Pathways Into Treatment
Prosecutor-led diversion can reduce incarceration only when eligibility, treatment access, and case management are operationally engineeredā€”otherwise it becomes inconsistent and inequitable. This article explains how deferred prosecution pathways are designed, governed, and evidenced without creating relapse traps. Read more...
Specialty Courts as Diversion Systems: Turning Judicial Oversight Into Sustained Treatment Engagement
Specialty courts only reduce recidivism when they function as coordinated systems. This article explains how drug and problem-solving courts operationalize diversionā€”assessment, MAT continuity, sanction ladders, and governanceā€”to sustain engagement without punitive drift. Read more...
Police-Led Pre-Arrest Diversion: Designing Street-Level Pathways That Prevent Custody and Overdose
Police officers are often the first system contact during overdose risk and behavioral crisis. This article explains how pre-arrest diversion is operationalized at street levelā€”decision rules, clinical handoffs, MAT access, and governanceā€”so officers route people to care instead of custody. Read more...
Public Defenderā€“Led Diversion: Building Early Pathways That Turn Legal Advocacy Into Treatment Access
Public defenders often see SUD risk patterns first, but advocacy alone does not produce treatment access. This article explains how defender offices operationalize diversionā€”screening, rapid clinical triage, MAT linkage, and defensible data sharingā€”so clients enter care early and stay out of custody. Read more...
Probation and Parole as Diversion Infrastructure: Designing Supervision That Reduces Overdose and Reincarceration
Probation and parole can either stabilize recovery or amplify failure through missed appointments and technical violations. This article explains how supervision is operationally redesigned into a diversion pathwayā€”embedding treatment access, MAT continuity, escalation routes, and governance that reduces overdose risk and returns to custody. Read more...
Law Enforcementā€“Led Diversion Models: Operational Design Beyond Crisis Response and Citation Avoidance
Officer-led diversion models fail when they rely on discretion without infrastructure. This article explains how police-led diversion pathways are operationalized to triage risk, connect people to treatment, and avoid recycling individuals through crisis calls. Read more...
Court-Led Diversion for Substance Use Disorders: Designing Treatment-First Dockets That Actually Work
Court-led diversion succeeds only when judicial authority is aligned with real treatment capacity and accountable follow-up. This article explains how treatment-first dockets are operationally designed to move people into care, manage risk, and evidence outcomes without coercive failure. Read more...
Jail-Based Reentry Planning for SUD: Starting Treatment Before Release and Protecting Continuity After
Reentry is the highest-risk transition in the justice system, especially when withdrawal, overdose risk, and unstable housing collide. This article explains how jails design start-before-release workflows that initiate MAT, transmit usable handoffs, and ensure accountable follow-up in the first week. Read more...
Building a County Diversion Pathway for SUD: From Arrest Contact to Same-Day Treatment Linkage
Diversion works when it is designed as an end-to-end operational pathway, not a referral idea. This article explains how counties build justice-to-treatment workflows that move people from arrest contact into same-day clinical triage, medication starts, and community follow-up with defensible governance. Read more...