Spotlight on Criminal Justice: Observing PTACC National Deflection Week – July

What should happen when the police stop a homeless person for trespassing or a young girl for shoplifting? When a crime is relatively minor and nonviolent, police face a tough choice. If arrested, a person’s life can take a dramatic turn, severing social ties, jeopardizing employment, and increasing the chances of further system involvement. Once entrenched in the criminal justice system, a person can find it difficult to escape. However, a simple warning is not always sufficient either. Deflection programs provide an important third option, a middle ground between sending someone to jail and letting them off the hook.

What is National Deflection Week?

Since last year, the Police, Treatment, and Community Collaborative (PTACC) has led an effort to recognize the third week of July as National Deflection Week. PTACC is a nonprofit organization that “[facilitates] the growth and practice of deflection and pre-arrest diversion in all its forms–including programs that incorporate co-responder and community responder models–nationally and internationally.” As a member of PTACC’s National Leadership Council, we are proud to support National Deflection Week so all communities may benefit from this commonsense approach to low-level violations of law.

Deflection vs. Diversion

The terms “deflection” and “diversion” are sometimes used interchangeably, but the two concepts have important differences. “Diversion” is a broad term that encompasses many types of justice system off-ramps to keep people out of prison. Ideally, diversion occurs before an arrest ever takes place. This type—known as “deflection,” or “pre-arrest diversion”—avoids the many negative downstream effects associated with being arrested and going to jail. The goal of deflection programs is to keep people out of the formal justice system, if possible.

While diversion programs span the justice system continuum, deflection intervenes at the earliest point in the process. Instead of an arrest, police may issue a citation requiring the person to pay a fine, perform community service, or undergo restorative justice. The various “deflection pathways” defined by the Department of Justice include self-referral, active outreach, naloxone plus, first responder and officer referral, officer intervention, and community response. Rather than making courts de facto service providers because no other system exists, these routes bypass the formal justice system, referring individuals directly to the help they need.

Benefits of Deflection 

Prosecuting, adjudicating, and incarcerating human beings is expensive and inefficient. By avoiding the costs and collateral damage of arrest and incarceration, deflection achieves better public safety outcomes at a lower cost to taxpayers than other types of diversion. Furthermore, individuals in the criminal justice system are more likely to have a psychiatric or substance abuse disorder than the general population. For some, contact with law enforcement may provide the first opportunity they have ever had to access mental health support. This is especially true for young people. As the first point of contact for vulnerable individuals, police-led deflection programs can also serve as an essential link to treatment options that disrupt patterns of criminality.

Evidence for Deflection

Keeping low-level offenders away from the traditional criminal justice system has wide-ranging benefits for individuals, taxpayers, and society at large. One ambitious study following youth from age 6 to age 25 showed that after being deflected as juveniles, people are half as likely to be arrested after becoming an adult than those processed through the traditional system. Deflected youth are also significantly less likely to be suspended or expelled from school than those who were arrested, improving educational outcomes. Despite this track record of success, only one-third of jurisdictions in the United States currently have a juvenile deflection program.

Conclusion

It turns out the best way to protect public safety is to recognize that certain individuals should be kept out of the justice system entirely. Deflection not only reduces the burden on courts and correctional systems, but also promotes healthier, more stable communities by addressing the root causes of offending behavior. National Deflection Week is an opportunity for us to envision a system where justice is served, not by imprisoning our fellow citizens for minor offenses, but helping them make better choices in the future. Policymakers nationwide would do well to expand deflection initiatives in their local justice systems, ensuring that every community can benefit from this effective, fiscally responsible, public safety strategy.

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