Charleston CARES Pre-Trial Diversion Initiative

This City of Charleston, WV "Pre-Trial Diversion Initiative" will utilize and expand an existing pre-trial diversion program to refer and direct qualifying defendants dealing with crimes involving Substance Use Disorder and/or mental health issues and who are appearing before Municipal Court or Magistrate Court, into a structured program for treatment, life skills, and rehabilitative services rather than potential incarceration or other penalties.  The purposes of this CARES Pre-Trial Diversion initiatives are to prevent recidivism and frequent offender crimes; to address and mitigate root causes of SUD and mental illness issues; to better manage cases of individuals for recovery and reduction of offenses; and to reduce burdens on the law enforcement, judicial, and jail systems.  This treatment program will be administered throughout the entire City of Charleston by the Charleston CARES Office -- the "Charleston Coordinated Area Response Effort", which has leveraged a number of tools and innovations to make this pre-trial approach and other programs effective in what is a very challenging community for these opioid, SUD, and poverty issues.  This will be done under a coordinated approach involving CARES, the Charleston Police Department, the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, the Municipal and Magistrate judges, social service and public health organizations, and other allies.

In 2022, the Charleston CARE team assisted in 95 diversions from the Municipal and Magistrate courts and, in 2023, this grew to 165 diversions.  The system is stressed and overloaded, and thus Charleston will use this DOJ Byrne Grant funding to support the hiring of a full-time Pre-Trial Diversion Coordinator for a pilot start-up period (to be funded by the City thereafter), who will work with key judicial and law enforcement system personnel, defendants, victims, affected families, and community organizations to promote the benefits of diversion approaches, deal with referrals to the diversion program from the Municipal and Magistrate Courts, and to support placement of participants into the established CARES SUD and life skills programs.   Charleston expects this to enable the city to double the number of effective diversions to double the 2023 level, at a target of 330 diversions.