Over the past 2 years, PRA has provided technical assistance to 15 diversion services programs funded by the Trueblood settlement. Trueblood is a class action lawsuit in Washington State that enforces a person’s constitutional right to timely competence evaluation and restoration services. The purposes of the diversion services programs are to (1) reduce the justice involvement of individuals with serious mental illness, (2) reduce the likelihood of the need for a competence evaluation, and (3) reduce demand for competence services. Policy Research Associates has partnered with the Trueblood Court Monitor’s Office, Seattle Foundation, Disability Rights Washington, and the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services to provide this technical assistance. 

To highlight the work of these diversion services programs and provide examples of how diversion can be modeled at different intercepts of the Sequential Intercept Model (SIM), PRA is pleased to release a one-page infographic that arrays the programs across the SIM. The SIM is a conceptual model used to inform community-based responses to people with mental illness and substance use disorders in contact with the criminal justice system.  

The infographic distributes the diversion programs by Intercept grouping: Intercepts 0–1 (Community Services and Law Enforcement), Intercepts 2–3 (Initial Detention/Court Hearings and Jails/Courts), and Intercepts 4–5 (Reentry and Community Corrections). The highlighted programs include deploying co-responder models, providing emergency housing services, offering warm handoffs to community-based services, training probation officers on community mental health services, and establishing datasharing agreements. Links to each of the highlighted programs are included for further information.  

This resource was first shared in 2020.

(PDF, 435 KB)