The San Marcos City Council held a study session recently on a new criminal justice reform program that holds promise. It is Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, or LEAD, that is designed to keep people out of the criminal justice system.
Lives Ruined and Public Costs
Why should we care? Crime is crime, right? Well, maybe not so much. Every time someone is incarcerated there are repercussions regarding their jobs, car payments, rent, and perhaps family. And in Hays County at the moment, the local jail is overcrowded (a new one is set to open soon). So taxpayers spend at least $75,000 per week housing prisoners in surrounding counties.
LEAD Offers an Alternative
The LEAD program began in Seattle in 2011, according to an article by Jordan Burnham in the San Marcos Daily Record. Since then 41 other municipalities have implemented LEAD. Not only does the program keep people out of the criminal justice system for minor offenses, it reduces racial disparity that exists in the system today.
Statistics Are Startling
The United States comprises 5 percent of the world’s population but has 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated population. According to data presented by Brendan Cox, director of policing strategies for LEAD, the overall U.S. population is 76.6 percent white, 13.4 percent black and 18.1 per hispanic. Yet the sentenced population in 2016 was 39 percent white, 41.3 percent black and 21 percent hispanic.
How Does LEAD Help?
The program diverts individuals whose problems are driven by behavioral issues out of the criminal justice system and into long-term case management, Cox related. Those chosen for the program aren’t “people who commit gunpoint robberies,” but those who are committing lower-level offenses, according to Cox. Such crimes would include drug possession, minor drug sales, sex work and crimes driven by addiction, mental illness, poverty or homelessness.
LEAD as an Alternative to Arrest or Otherwise
LEAD can be offered to an individual as an alternative to arrest once officers are trained in the program. Or an officer may make a “social contact referral” when he or she spots someone in need of the program, Cox told the council. And once the individual accepts LEAD, a case manager is assigned. That person works with the person where he or she may be, even living under a bridge.
Housing, Jobs, IDs
At that point, the case manager will help the individual in making changes, such as getting an ID, finding housing and perhaps obtaining a job. “We recognize that arresting those individuals isn’t going to make a difference. So we look to try to deal with the root cause of the issue and to really increase public safety by doing that,” Cox told the council.
Implementation Will Cost Money
Yes, implementing the program will cost money. Police will need some additional training. Case managers will be needed, as will an overall program manager. But San Marcos is somewhat ready since it already has a mental health program in place. Other police departments may be poised to join with many of the same resources.
What We’re Doing Doesn’t Work
But spending $75,000 or more per week outsourcing county jail prisoners doesn’t work either. We’re overcrowding jails with people who have committed non-violent offenses and likely need addiction or other kinds of treatment. Or, oftentimes, they have no money to pay a modest bond. And we can’t keep building bigger and bigger jails. A diversion program that helps reduce those numbers should be better for the communities served, the individuals, their families and the future of the country.