What is Jail Deflection?
Deflection is a component of Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) programs that seek to improve outcomes for people with severe and persistent mental illness, while reducing jail overcrowding and recidivism. This process starts with the first responders at the scene and accompanying co-responders.
Jail Deflection is connecting a disturbed subject with:
- Mental health crisis stabilization
- Substance abuse treatment
- Follow-up services such as housing assistance.
- Coordination with health professionals to make voluntary treatment an attractive option instead of involvement with the criminal justice system.
An important distinction is that Jail Deflection occurs before arrest and charges are filed. Court Diversion, aka Restorative Justice, occurs after charges, but before prosecution or sentencing, and it involves the offender making direct amends to their victim or the community.
According to Police Chief Magazine’s Jac Charlier, Jail Deflection can be viewed as a crime-prevention measure, as it has the potential to reduce recidivism.
Characteristics of Jail Deflection:
Jail Deflection is an effort to manage systemic stress and optimize justice by better placing mentally ill and/or intoxicated subjects. The mentally ill do not do well in the community nor in jails. They act out in the community, disturbing public peace, and are at risk of victimization themselves. A stay in jail does not curb their mental illness and may be reinforcing, as they now have three hots and a cot. They learned that acting out can result in a three-to-six-month bid from the street, where they have three meals, a warm bunk, and showers. They will return. They need treatment that interrupts the cycle of chaos and keeps them off the streets long-term.
Some features that make Jail Deflection unique:
- Jail Deflection can be defined as a Pre-arrest intervention for a minor criminal act.
- Jail deflection is a quasi-voluntary option that is offered instead of arrest and processing.
- Jail Deflection is typically applied to low-level offenses, violations, and non-violent misdemeanors.
- The emphasis is changed from punitive to treatment and resolution.
- This intervention at the initial point of police contact prevents the need for further involvement in the criminal justice system.
The Benefits of Jail Deflection:
According to research by Julianne Regalado and colleagues, almost 60% of police officers surveyed support Jail Deflection programs. There are both established benefits and theoretical ones that are hoped to unfold over time for officer buy-in for deflection programs.
The public image of police has taken some real hits in the past five years. We have seen protests that are not peaceful, as the media paints them, riots, and pervasive public mistrust, again eagerly fueled by the media. Police morale has nosedived. Jail Deflection could be part of the process of reversing this trend by changing perceptions of law enforcement, restoring public trust, and improving police morale.
Consider this all too familiar scenario:
A disturbed individual is behaving erratically, disturbing public order, and threatening people. Police respond, and the person is uncooperative, combative, and armed with a knife or blunt instrument. They do not respond to repeated orders to drop their weapon; they advance on officers and are shot dead.
The media will locate the most innocent and peaceful image of the person shot by police. They will interview the family this person is estranged from, who feared him, and they will be tearful during the interview. An attorney watching will call them and offer to work on a contingency basis to sue for civil rights violations and excessive use of force.
The media will spin the facts or outright ignore them to fit their agenda and the current socio-political narratives, with no consideration of the impact and outcome. The public will be outraged and will blame the police officers on the scene, the department, and law enforcement in general. There will be protests by people who lack any context for what they are protesting and offer no viable alternatives.
A successful Deflection, involving appropriate referral, can prevent this wreck of an outcome from the outset.
Liability management for the officers and their department: The less escalation up the force ladder, the lower risk of injury to the subject as well as the responding officers. Jail Deflection is another tool to manage liability by preventing lawsuits for excess use of force or wrongful death. The last place you ever want to be is sitting in court, having to defend yourself from people second-guessing a decision you had to make in less than a second.
Reduced recidivism: The same small number of disturbed individuals in a community are responsible for a disproportionate amount of attention from law enforcement, as well as Parole and Probation, and ER staff. They are repeatedly seen as arrests and brief holds, or as VOPs (Violations of Probation/Parole), not as deterrents. At an ER, they are evaluated and stabilized, but do not follow up with recommendations for mental health treatment. They are engaging in disruptive community behavior again within hours. This is demoralizing and futility-inducing for all parties involved.
See this example from the WCAX News team, in which the same man had over 1850 encounters with law enforcement, 170 No Trespass orders, six felonies, and 42 misdemeanor convictions. Clearly, the methods employed to contain and manage individuals like him do not work.
Jail Deflection can mean fewer tiresome calls about the same person, which means less time processing someone only to have them released in a few hours, and more time to focus on more serious threats to the community.
Systemic Cost Containment: Every time someone is picked up, booked, processed, appears in court, fails to appear, or must have an ER visit and evaluation, it is an expense and a drain on budgets. Jail Deflection can disrupt this chain of events and lower costs over time.
Concerns about Jail Deflection:
There are legitimate concerns and reservations about adopting Jail Deflection programs that must be addressed. For this to work, LEOs must have confidence in the program. Without street-level officer buy-in for deflection programs, deflection will not occur. The stakes are high: officer safety, public safety, and public trust.
- Officer safety: Will Jail Deflection compromise officer safety by creating the implied or tacit expectation that force cannot be used with certain populations?
- Bad Optics: Will this create the impression that police are being soft on crime and that public safety is secondary to the rights of the mentally ill? Small business owners in downtowns are wary of the homeless mentally ill shoplifting, vandalizing, and otherwise disrupting their business, driving away customers, and threatening staff.
- Underestimating the impact of low-level offenses: Misdemeanors such as Disturbing the Peace and Vandalism are defined as low-level, but they are not low-level for the merchant who must sweep up broken glass, scrub off graffiti, or try to reassure the customer who just witnessed an incident and will not return.
- Lack of compliance: While some people will genuinely engage in treatment, others will do the least possible to meet minimal requirements and will promptly use again, and others refuse to participate.
Concluding Thoughts:
Jail Deflection, like all trends in law enforcement, must be examined critically, field-assessed, and pressure-tested over time. It will not fix everything, but it can become another option for repairing a flawed criminal justice system.
