Philadelphia Diversion Program Shrinks City’s Criminal Justice Footprint

A new white paper published in collaboration with the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office (DAO) found that diversion programs, which offer a middle-ground alternative that keeps the person from formally entering the criminal justice system, can produce a net narrowing effect in the criminal justice system, reducing its overall scope by increasing expungement rates and lowering reconviction rates, reports Phys.org.
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Philadelphia’s Accelerated Misdemeanor Program (AMP) requires a defendant to do 12-18 hours of community service and to pay court fees within 10 weeks of accepting the terms, expunging the case records of those who complete the program. The research, involving an analysis of more than 4,100 misdemeanor cases opened between June 2009 and September 2011 for people aged 18 to 27, showed that AMP increased diversion rates by 22 percent, reduced cases sentenced to jail or probation by 8 percent, and dropped five-year conviction rates by 8 percent. Though AMP did reduce the case-dismissal rate by 13 percent, it also upped the rate of expungement—meaning a wholesale deletion of the criminal record—by 18 percent.