The Police Chief Magazine (9/2015)

In this article, TASC's Jac Charlier writes about models to divert people from arrest to treatment.

While on patrol, police officers routinely encounter people who have substance use disorders (SUDs). In the United States, adults who were arrested in the past year for any serious offense were four times more likely to have used an illicit drug than those who were not arrested. Additional research shows that 87 percent of males tested positive for at least one illicit drug at the time of arrest and 40 percent tested positive for two or more. Following arrest, in part or directly related to their drug use, those arrested might land in jail or prison. While it is estimated that SUDs occur in 68 percent of the jail population and 53 percent of the state prison population (compared to just 9 percent of the general U.S. population), only 12 percent of the incarcerated population will actually receive drug treatment while in custody. This usually means they will soon be back in their communities (disproportionately communities of color) without having received treatment for the disease of addiction, will start re-using drugs, and may soon have their next contact with police. We have also come to understand the harmful, unintended collateral consequences of repeated and extended contact with the justice system for those low-risk citizens who, due to their addiction, might be better treated in the community. To address this pervasive and costly situation, our citizens, our communities, and our police need solutions that call upon the resources of both the public safety and the public health systems, as well as reflect the desires and concerns of the local community; solutions that reduce crime, reduce drug use, save dollars, and seek to build a more just justice system that enhances police legitimacy in the community. 

Building on the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Justice Leaders Systems Change Initiative (JLSCI), the Center for Health and Justice (CHJ) at TASC, the Montgomery County (Maryland) Police Department (MCPD), and the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) have jointly developed a system solution to this persistent challenge faced every day by police across the United States. The solution, known as the Montgomery County Deflection Model (the Model), is a pre-booking deflection (diversion) model focused on the SUD populations who have a high likelihood of repeated contact with police due to their untreated addictions and the attendant criminogenic effects (i.e., those effects statistically related to criminal activity). 

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