Profile Updated:
Summary: This is a pre-booking, community-based diversion program in Seattle, Washington designed to divert those suspected of low-level drug and prostitution criminal activity away from jail and prosecution to case management and other supportive services. The program is rated Promising for reducing the likelihood of being arrested and being charged with a felony offense. (Review the full program description).
| Title | Rating | Details | Outcome Category | Study(ies) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arrests |
Promising | One Study |
Individuals who participated in the program reported a greater reduction in the likelihood of being arrested compared with individuals in the control group. Individuals who participated in the program had 56 percent lower odds of being arrested at least once compared with control group individuals. This difference was statistically significant. |
Crime and Delinquency; Multiple Crime Offense Type; Arrest/Rearrest | Collins, Susan E., Heather S. Lonczak, and Seema L. Clifasefi. 2017. "Seattle’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD): Program Effects on Recidivism Outcomes." Evaluation and Program Planning 64:49–56. See evaluation methods. |
| Felony charges |
Promising | One Study |
Individuals who participated in the program reported a greater reduction in the likelihood of being charged with at least one felony compared with individuals in the control group. Individuals who participated in the program had 39 percent lower odds of being charged with at least one felony compared with control group individuals. This difference was statistically significant. |
Crime and Delinquency ; Multiple Crime/Offense Type; Felonies | Collins, Susan E., Heather S. Lonczak, and Seema L. Clifasefi. 2017. "Seattle’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD): Program Effects on Recidivism Outcomes." Evaluation and Program Planning 64:49–56. See evaluation methods. |
Program Goals
The Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program is a pre-booking, community-based diversion program developed in Seattle, Washington. The program was designed to divert those suspected of low-level drug and prostitution criminal activity away from jail and prosecution to case management and other supportive services. The primary goal of LEAD is to reduce criminal recidivism. Other goals of the program include the reduction in criminal justice service utilization and associated costs, and the improvement in psychosocial, housing, and quality-of-life outcomes.
Target Population/Eligibility
LEAD participants are suspected of recent narcotics and/or prostitution offenses. Individuals are screened by Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers for eligibility. The SPD considered individuals ineligible to participate if they meet any of the following criteria:
- The amount of drugs involved exceeded 3 grams;
- The individual did not appear amenable to diversion;
- The suspected drug activity involved delivery or possession with intent to deliver;
- The individual appeared to exploit minors during the drug activity;
- The individual was suspected of promoting prostitution;
- The individual had a disqualifying criminal history (Collins, Lonczak, and Clifasefi 2015, p. 7).
Program Components
Individuals are diverted at the point of arrest instead of undergoing standard jail booking and criminal prosecution. They are referred to a LEAD case manager to complete an intake assessment. The assessment includes items evaluating an individual’s substance-use frequency and treatment, time spent in housing, quality of life, psychological symptoms, interpersonal relationships, and health status.
After the intake process, LEAD participants receive case management through the Evergreen Treatment Services’ REACH homeless outreach program. Case management is provided using a low-barrier, harm-reduction style, meaning case managers meet participants in their communities and engage participants with compassion and positive regard. Participants are connected with existing resources in the community, such as legal advocacy, job training or placement, housing assistance, and counseling.
Case managers can also access funds to provide financial support for a participant’s basic needs, such as housing, food, clothing, and various other services. Other program components include coordination of prosecution strategy in any other pending criminal cases that participants have in local courts, and legal assistance with civil legal problems. Six months following entry into the program, participants complete an additional one-on-one interview with their case managers.
Key Personnel
The LEAD program is a collaboration involving a number of organizations, including the Defender Association, the Seattle Police Department, the ACLU of Washington, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, the Seattle City Attorney’s office, the King County Sherriff’s Office, the King County Executive, the Washington State Department of Corrections, and others.
Study Title: Seattle’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD): Program Effects on Recidivism (which is associated with outcomes Arrests and Felony charges)
Research Design
Collins and colleagues (2017) conducted a nonrandomized, two-group longitudinal controlled evaluation of Seattle’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program. The study took place in Seattle, Washington—a large urban city—between October 2011 and July 2014. Adults suspected of low-level drug and prostitution offenses were eligible for inclusion in the study. Adults were ineligible for participation if they possessed more than 3 grams of drugs, were suspected of dealing drugs for profit or dealing above a subsistence income, were not amenable to diversion, exploited minors or others in dealing, promoted prostitution, or had serious criminal histories (e.g., murder, arson, robbery 1, assault 1, kidnapping, firearm or sex offenses). Additional exclusions applied to those with certain convictions within the past 10 years (domestic violence, robbery 2, assault 2 or 3, burglary 1 or 2, firearm violations) or those already in King County Drug Diversion or Mental Health Court.
Participants entered the LEAD treatment group or the system-as-usual control group through two methods. They were 1) arrested during designated officer shifts, or 2) referred as social contacts based on known involvement in recent criminal activity. First, police officer shifts, not individual arrestees, were randomly assigned as LEAD or control shifts. Eligible people arrested during those shifts were placed into the corresponding group. A second pathway allowed “social contacts” (people suspected of recent drug or prostitution activity who were encountered in the geographic zone from which participants are drawn original catchment area) to enter LEAD without arrest. Because the original catchment area had few eligible individuals over time, most individuals were approached about participating in LEAD. As a result, an insufficient number of individuals were available for inclusion in the control group. To meet the need for an adequately sized, comparable control group, control areas (in addition to control shifts) were added to the evaluation. The control areas included neighborhoods patrolled by the same squads, using identical inclusion criteria.
Sample
A total of 318 participants were included in the study: 203 individuals were assigned to the LEAD treatment group (146 as arrestees, 57 as social contacts), and 115 individuals were assigned to the control group. The control group received standard criminal justice processing, including arrest, prosecution, and potential incarceration, without access to LEAD services.
Of the total study sample, 34 percent were female. As indicated by police records, 60 percent identified as African American, 26 percent as European American, 4 percent as American Indian/Alaska Native, 4 percent as Multiracial, 3 percent as Hispanic/Latino, 2 percent as Asian American, and 1 percent as Other. The mean age was 40.2 years. Notably, 82 percent of participants had experienced homelessness.
The study authors used generalized boosted regression modeling to calculate propensity score weights, controlling for differences in age, biological sex, race/ethnicity, and prior arrests.
Outcome Measures/Data Collection
The outcome of interest was recidivism, measured as arrests and felony charges. Arrests were defined as instances in which individuals were taken into police custody for crimes committed during the program evaluation period. Arrests related to new offenses, and they did not include parole or probation violations or failure-to-comply offenses pursuant to prior violations. Felony charges included criminal charges for felonies that occurred during the evaluation timeframe. Data were collected from Seattle Police Department records, LEAD case management logs, the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC) [these data were compiled by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office], and participant records.
Statistical Analysis
The primary analyses were generalized logistic estimating equation models, which tested the effects of time, intervention group, and the time and intervention group interaction adjusting for repeated measures. Outcomes were assessed up to nearly 5 years for recidivism outcomes. Odds ratios were reported for all outcomes. No subgroup analyses were conducted.
Citation:
Collins, Susan E., Heather S. Lonczak, and Seema L. Clifasefi. 2017. "Seattle’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD): Program Effects on Recidivism Outcomes." Evaluation and Program Planning 64:49–56.
This study is a high-quality randomized controlled trial.
The outcome criminal charges was considered in the scored studies, but CrimeSolutions Study Reviewers determined the evidence was insufficient for a rating to be assigned.
The initial start-up costs per person during the first month of the program was $24,275, but decreased to $532 per person by the 29th month of operation, due to greater recruitment of participants, more efficiency in client assistance spending, and the expansion in Medicaid due to the Affordable Care Act (Collins, Lonczak, and Clifasefi 2015b).
Approximately 40 officers (of 1,300 in the Seattle Police Department) were involved in the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program. LEAD officers received focused instructions and training to apply the inclusion/exclusion criteria to identify possible program participants.
Various stakeholders involved in the LEAD program spent significant time developing a protocol to guide program operations. The protocol described the procedures by which LEAD officers should refer people to the program, and by which LEAD participants are engaged by social service providers (for more information, see Beckett 2014, p. 9–13).
These sources were used in the development of the program profile:
Clifasefi, Seema L., Heather S. Lonczak, and Susan E. Collins. 2016. LEAD Program Evaluation. The Impact of LEAD on Housing, Employment and Income/Benefits. Seattle, WA: University of Washington, Harborview Medical Center, Harm Reduction Research and Treatment Lab.
Collins, Susan E., Heather S. Lonczak, and Seema L. Clifasefi. 2019. “Seattle’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD): Program Effects on Criminal Justice and Legal System Utilization and Costs.” Journal of Experimental Criminology 15:201–211.
Clifasefi, Seema L., Heather S. Lonczak, and Susan E. Collins. 2017. “Seattle’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) Program: Within-Subjects Changes on Housing, Employment, and Income/ Benefits Outcomes and Associations With Recidivism.” Crime & Delinquency 63(4):429–445.
Beckett, Katherine. 2014. Seattle's Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Program: Lessons Learned From the First Two Years. Process evaluation funded by the Ford Foundation. Seattle, WA: University of Washington, Harborview Medical Center, Harm Reduction Research and Treatment Lab.
Collins, Susan E., Heather S. Lonczak, and Seema L. Clifasefi. 2015. LEAD Program Evaluation: Recidivism Report. Seattle, WA: University of Washington, Harborview Medical Center, Harm Reduction Research and Treatment Lab.
Collins, Susan E., Heather S. Lonczak, and Seema L. Clifasefi. 2015. LEAD Program Evaluation: Criminal Justice and Legal System Utilization and Associated Costs. Seattle, WA: University of Washington, Harborview Medical Center, Harm Reduction Research and Treatment Lab.
This program was originally rated Promising. It has been re-reviewed based on the change in the program rating instrument. Under the new instrument, CrimeSolutions ow now rates individual program outcomes and no longer assigns an overall rating.
Rating Process
Program Status
This program is Active.