The Multnomah County Board was updated on efforts to launch a new pilot project designed to divert low-level drug offenders from jail to treatment and social services.
LEAD or Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, which is based on a successful Seattle pilot project, would give people facing certain drug charges the option to be booked into jail and prosecuted or to enter the LEAD program for support, case management, and treatment.
The pilot, which is slated to start in early 2017, will be funded by $800,000 in contingency set aside by the board for the pre-booking diversion program and bolstered by $200,000 from the MacArthur Safety and Justice Challenge grant money the county received this Fall.
Abbey Stamp, Executive Director of the Local Public Safety Coordinating Council, which will oversee the program, said law enforcement will work in tandem with district attorneys, social service providers, mental health and addiction experts to help ensure each LEAD participant gets a case plan to meet their unique needs.
“Perhaps at some point, if a LEAD participant is not the right fit for the program and isn’t engaging in case management, there will be a decision made about how to manage new criminal violations,” explained Stamp. Some new criminal violations may be prosecuted, but that decision would be collaborative, and made by all the people involved in the participant’s care, she continued.
Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill, County Mental Health and Addiction Services Senior Manager Devarshi Bajpai, Dr. T. Allen Bethel of the Albina Ministerial Alliance and Portland Police Central Precinct Commander Chris Davis updated the board on the status and goals of the program.
LEAD will focus on the high-pedestrian areas of Downtown Portland, namely Old Town. District Attorney Rod Underhill estimated roughly 600 to 800 Possession of a Controlled Substance cases in 2015, resulted from that designated geographic area.
“If our data is consistent with Seattle, we’ll see that about 80% of this population is going to be homeless,” Underhill said. “We know, based on review of the material, relative to disproportionality, we see a high disproportionality of people of color being contacted and referred to my office in this crime category.”
Dr. T. Allen Bethel, who serves as senior pastor of Maranatha Church in Northeast Portland and a member of the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform described the cascading effects drug addiction has on local families, jobs and opportunities that come as a result. Bethel lauded efforts to address disparities.
“In an article discussing disparity in the prison system as punishment,” he said, “Heather Rice-Minus talked about how we all agree that there are disparities in the system. What we don’t agree about is what causes them and how we solve the issue. This is one method that I believe will help us with the goal.”
Portland Police Commander Chris Davis said officers with Portland’s Street Crimes Unit will operate the program and build on existing relationships officers already have with people in the community.
“One of the early items of feedback from street crimes was, they always wanted some kind of option at the time of arrest to give these people, other than to send them to the criminal justice system,” explained Davis. “This is an opportunity to refer people to services right out the front door. We’re encouraged by that.“
Currently, the county is in the process of reviewing applications from social services providers. The county will then solicit proposals from the candidates to provide case management and service brokering. As part of community outreach, the LEAD team will host a dinner on November 16 at the Ambridge Event Center in Northeast Portland. Guests will include the the Office of Neighborhood Involvement, Black Lives Matter, the NAACP, Don’t Shoot Portland, the Citizen’s Crime Commission, Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center (POIC) and more.
Commissioner Judy Shiprack, was reassured by Lead project members that the program wouldn’t widen the net of people brought into the system. Chair Deborah Kafoury commended the quick progress of the program.
“The whole experience of being arrested and convicted of a crime can alter a person’s life forever and throw barriers at that person that can really impede that opportunity,” said Shiprack. “I really do appreciate the work that you’re doing and I think that for this board this does tie in with the policy decision to reduce our funding of one aspect of the public safety system and increase funding in an on-going way for this aspect of the public safety system.”
“Our community partners have come together so quickly and with so much determination and interest that I’m really pleased that we have moved so far in such a short period of time,” said Kafoury.