A patchwork system of programs designed to keep people out of prison disproportionately burdens low-income Alabamians, legal advocacy Alabama Appleseed found in a statewide study.

Appleseed examined diversion programs across the state and interviewed more than 1,000 participants in its newly released "In Trouble" report, which ultimately recommends state lawmakers establish uniform, statewide standards for programs that vary widely county to county. 

Diversion programs are court or community programs that allow a person facing a criminal conviction to either avoid conviction or incarceration. Drug courts are commonly used diversion programs, allowing people charged with low level drug offenses to avoid prison time by submitting to regular drug testing, job requirements and other guidelines. 

"We hope this report will provide a road map for tackling some really tough issues in a smarter way. We hear so much about the opioid crisis, and it is real and it devastates family and communities. We hear so much about the horrors and the violence in our prisons," said Appleseed Executive Director Carla Crowder. "If more people could be treated outside of prison for substance use issues, we could find a way to make these opportunities work for the people who need them most. It could make a difference in two huge and sometimes seemingly overwhelming issues in this state."

The report is a timely look at diversion programs in the state as legislators enter their second week of the 2020 legislative session, in which prison reforms — and rehabilitative alternatives such as diversion — are expected to take center stage.

The U.S. Department of Justice issued a report last April that detailed violence and sexual assault within the men’s prisons and said the conditions violated inmates’ protections against cruel and unusual punishment. The corrections system also faces ongoing lawsuits over medical and mental health care for prisoners. 

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But Sen. Cam Ward and others have cautioned that the state not create a "pay-for-play" system in leaning on diversion programs as a prisons solution, allowing wealthy people to avoid prison time through programs others can't afford. 

Diversion programs often come with a cost. Appleseed found that of the 1,011 people it surveyed, more than 80 percent had to give up necessities such as food or prescription medication to afford their diversion program. 

Appleseed reports the median amount paid for diversion was $1,600, more than 10% of many participants' annual income. 

Diversion programs are often touted as a way to introduce accountability and stability into an offender's life — regular drug testing, job requirements, periodic check-ins with judges and social workers. 

"In crafting these programs, especially the drug and mental health courts, the intentions were so good," Crowder said. "We recognized that it did not make sense to lock people up because they were stuck in a cycle of addiction and their offenses were related to that."

But Appleseed found the programs often had the opposite effect, with unrealistic financial and time commitments for people trying to feed their families and hold down a job. A significant portion of the people surveyed in the report either declined to participate or had to drop out of a diversion program because of work, child care or school obligations. 

Many lacked a driver's license or transportation to and from required appointments. 

"It showed that these kind of programs need input from actual participants, the struggling people who need these services," Crowder said. "It seems to make sense, for example, having to show up in court once a week. That doesn't seem unreasonable. But you realize everyone has to be there at 9, and you may see the judge in a half hour, or it could take four hours. That's so destabilizing."

Diversion programs also vary wildly from county to county, with little transparency of why costs fluctuate and where diversion funds ultimately end up.

Last year, the Montgomery Advertiser reported on a drug court program in Walker County, a northwest Alabama county plagued by a stunning influx of opioids in the past 15 years. Kirsten Shaw, the executive director of a Walker County treatment center, said she know drug courts are attempting to help people, but the financial obligations were overwhelming for people working minimum wage jobs: "$100 for an assessment, $75 for a monthly report, $35 for a drug test."

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“... We’re trying to dig them out of the negative all the time,” Shaw said of trying to help the women in her homes pay for child support, build up savings, buy a car to get to and from work. “If they have all these things piled up on top of them, all we’re doing is just trying to keep them above water.”

Appleseed found that more than 4 in 10 diversion participants committed a crime to be able to pay for their diversion costs. 

"Though intended to keep low-level offenders from getting into more trouble, our research shows that the perverse reality is that diversion programs actually drive

many of the behaviors and circumstances they were devised to mitigate," Appleseed reports. "They are meant to enable people to continue to support themselves and live successfully within their communities, but we found that more than 1 in 8 diversion-involved people had been fired from jobs because they had to be in court in connection with a diversion program."

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In addition to calling for more statewide oversight and uniformity, Appleseed's report recommends diversion programs adjust their requirements to better accommodate participants' work and child care obligations, including operating on extended hours and requiring fewer in-person check-ins. 

"These programs are absolutely necessary," Crowder said. "This isn't a case where we're trying to completely criticize or overhaul the system. We want diversion. We want drug courts and mental health courts and community corrections. Given what's happening in our prisons and jails, we need more opportunities for people to stay in their communities, keep their jobs and care for their kids while they are in these alternative programs."


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