Pretrial & Probation
Prosecutors, pretrial services staff, and probation officers have a long history of working collaboratively as partners in the criminal justice system. With the rise of problem-solving courts, and both prosecution-led and court-led diversion efforts, that collaboration has never been more important. Essential to a prosecutor-led diversion effort is the need to identify experienced case managers to monitor participant performance. Both pretrial services staff and probation officers are ideal partners to fulfill this important role given their experience and training.
Providing this support to a prosecutor-led diversion effort, particularly where that program removes individuals from traditional case processing as early as is practical, can result in significant relief to over-crowded court dockets. That relief can also translate into reduced workloads for both pretrial services and probation staff and allow them to reinvest that saved time in more meaningful contacts with the clients that they serve.
Reciprocally, prosecutors can support the problem-solving court and court-led diversion efforts of their judicial partners as they work together to build a more efficient and effective criminal justice system. The creation of a new prosecutor-led diversion program is an important opportunity to continue that history of collaboration as each of the system partners realigns the use of their resources to produce better outcomes.