$400K State Grant Funds Study of Jail Diversion Programs

The state has awarded two University of Maryland centers $400,000 to analyze the effectiveness of six counties’ programs that help low-level offenders struggling with substance use or mental health disorders get care, not incarceration.

The funding from the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention and Policy (GOCPP) will support work by the Maryland Crime and Research Innovation Center and the Center for Substance Use, Addiction, and Health Research (CESAR) with Allegany, Anne Arundel, Harford, Calvert, Saint Mary’s and Carroll county officials involved in jail diversion programs.

“As we’ve been experiencing this opioid epidemic, law enforcement often are the first people to arrive on the scene,” said MCRIC Director Bianca Bersani, an associate professor of criminology and criminal justice. “Maryland has been trying out innovative approaches like ‘law enforcement assisted diversion’ to best meet this challenge, but what that means to one jurisdiction is likely to vary from another, and we don’t really know what works.”

The MCRIC team will take the lead on collecting and analyzing the data the counties’ law enforcement and health departments have collected on their programs and participants to date, while the CESAR researchers will conduct interviews with staff at the diversion programs in each county and other key stakeholders.

The project aims to provide a more complete picture of the prevalence and challenges facing individuals in need, and of the service providers, plus best practices for Maryland counties looking to implement a successful diversion program in their area.

“I hope the study will also encourage a deeper understanding of the value of diversion programs, and increase trust between the people who are coming into contact with the law enforcement agencies and their ability to access the kinds of services and assistance they need,” said Erin Artigiani, CESAR’s deputy director of policy.