Florida Partners in Crisis

Post-Booking Diversion

Post-booking diversion is the most prevalent type of criminal justice system diversion program in the United States. These programs identify and divert individuals with mental illness into alternative community-based treatment after they have been arrested. 

The TAPA Center publication, Non-Specialty First Appearance Court Models for Diverting Persons with Mental Illness: Alternatives to Mental Health Courts, discusses diversion models that occur very early in the criminal justice process. In some cases, individuals are diverted later in the process, including at disposition or sentencing.

Points at which individuals may be diverted typically include :
•    At or immediately after booking into jail, before the formal filing of charges
•    Release from pretrial detention, with the condition of participation in treatment
•    Prior to disposition, for example, upon the prosecutor's offer of deferred prosecution
•    At disposition or sentencing; this may include deferred sentencing or release on probation with conditions which include participation in treatment
•    When at risk of, or following, a violation of probation related to a prior conviction

Specialty mental health courts are an increasingly visible form of post-booking diversion program, whereby cases involving people with mental illness are handled through a special docket.

A growing number of Florida jurisdictions are establishing mental health courts. In fact, Broward County created the first criminal court in the nation to focus solely on mental health issues in 1997.  A number of mental health courts have since been created. Among the more recent are mental health courts in Alachua, Brevard, Leon, Polk, Okaloosa, Osceola and Sarasota.

Typically, diversion program staff work with prosecutors, public defenders, community-based mental health and substance abuse providers and the courts to develop and implement a plan for diversion and linkage to an appropriate array of community-based services.

Nearly all post-booking diversion programs include some type of monitoring of compliance with treatment, though the level of supervision and the active involvement of the court vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Charges are often reduced or dropped upon the individual's successful program completion. Or, the individual  may receive less time or no time in jail at sentencing as a result of participating in the jail diversion program.

The National Center for State Courts has links to mental health courts in Florida and other states. The Department of Justice's Mental Health Courts Program provides a great deal of information on the design, implementation and operation of mental health courts. 

Mental Health Courts: A Guide to Research-Informed Policy and Practice, published by the Council of State Government's Justice Center in September 2009 is another valuable source. The Justice Center's Consensus Project also has a comprehensive list of publications to guide court administrators and others in learning about and implementing mental health courts.