(Washington, DC) – TASC’s Center for Health and Justice (CHJ) was featured in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy’s (ONDCP) March 3 release of the Model Law Enforcement and Other First Responders Deflection Act, a resource for states that encourages the development and use of deflection programs across the country.

In a growing number of states, public safety and public health partnerships “deflect” people with substance use and mental health disorders away from traditional criminal justice programs and connect them to evidence-based treatment, harm reduction, recovery and prevention services. This state model law would expand access to these programs across the country.

Jac Charlier, executive director of TASC’s Center for Health and Justice and director of the Police, Treatment, and Community Collaborative (PTACC), was featured in the White House virtual press event and quoted in the White House press release: “With over 1,000 communities now doing deflection and with the continued rapid growth of the field across our country, the release of the Model Law Enforcement and Other First Responder Deflection Act could not have come at a better time for State deflection leaders.”

The Model Act encourages the use and establishment of deflection programs on the state level. Specifically, if fully implemented, the model law would: (1) authorize law enforcement and other first responders to develop and implement collaborative deflection programs that provide proactive policing to assist individuals who are at risk; (2) offer pathways to treatment, recovery services, housing, medication for addiction treatment, whole family services, and other needed supports; (3) require deflection programs to have certain threshold elements to be eligible to receive grant funding; and (4) require agencies establishing deflection programs to develop comprehensive memoranda of understanding in conjunction with, and agreed to by, all deflection program partners.

Excerpt from the Commentary portion of the Model Act:

Deflection is an emerging concept in the public health and safety arena. Only a few years after the first law enforcement-based program started in 2011, the Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities (TASC) Center for Health and Justice coined the term “deflection” by using it in an article published in 2015. TASC’s purpose in creating a new term was “to distinguish the work of the emerging field from the longstanding term diversion.” Traditional diversion programs generally involve prosecutors, courts, probation, and/or parole officers offering postarrest alternative programming or services to individuals in lieu of conviction, traditional sentencing, or violations of supervision conditions. Further, diversion is centered in the justice system. Deflection, by contrast, focuses on interactions with individuals before they become involved with the justice system. Indeed, other than the initial contact with a police officer in some (but not all) deflection programs, an individual who successfully navigates a deflection program will have no other contact with the justice system.

( . . . )

At present, 25 states and the District of Columbia have statutory provisions that explicitly encourage deflection programs. Illinois is a leader in this regard. In 2018, Illinois legislators enacted the most comprehensive deflection law in the United States, entitled the “Community Law Enforcement Partnership for Deflection and Substance Use Disorder Treatment Act” (Illinois Deflection Act). Initially, the Illinois Deflection Act applied only to law enforcement based programs. However, amendments to the legislation that took effect in July 2021 expand the law to include other first responder-led deflection programs, as well as training for program participants. The Illinois Deflection Act, as amended, serves as the primary foundation for the provisions in this Model Act.

The research and drafting of the Model Act was funded through ONDCP’s Model Acts Program and authored by its cooperative agreement award recipient, the Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association (LAPPA). Led by LAPPA, the Model Act was developed in close collaboration with PTACC and informed by the Act’s Working Group, whose members included experts from TASC and the Bureau of Justice’s Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Program (COSSAP).

Read the White House press release and the full act from LAPPA.