NCJ Number
89259
Date Published
1979
Length
433 pages
Annotation
Before presenting a description of New York City's Court Employment Project, a pretrial diversion program, along with the evaluation methodology and results, this report explores the development of the diversion concept.
Abstract
Launched as one of the first pretrial diversion programs in the country, the Court Employment Project (CEP) has provided pretrial diversion services in the New York City criminal courts since 1968. Early CEP goals were (1) to provide employment services to defendants, (2) to reduce detention and court processing while providing a basis for having charges dismissed, and (3) to demonstrate that employment services could have life-stabilizing results in a short time leading to reduced recidivism. The evaluation conducted in the late 1970's involved the concurrent and random assignment of defendants eligible for pretrial diversion to experimental and control groups; the creation of a research population large enough to permit adequate analysis of program impact; a follow-up period of at least 1 year for all experimental and control group members; and the development of an extensive data base, including material from personal interviews as well as official records. The evaluation examined CEP as an alternative to prosecution, stigma, and punishment, as well as its impact on participant life stability and recidivism. Findings show that despite statistically significant differences in the dispositions of the diverted and control groups, CEP was not diverting from prosecution in a large proportion of the cases, was not diverting from criminal convictions, and was rarely diverting from incarceration. CEP's efforts to impact the vocational behavior of clients was without measurable impact compared to the control group. Changes implemented by CEP in response to these evaluation findings are discussed, as the project has sought to expand the range of clients provided pretrial services while limiting its dependence upon prosecutors. Appendixes detail the evaluation analyses, and tabular data are provided along with about 270 bibliographic entries.