Maine Jail Diversion Programs

"Diverting Offenders to Treatment," a jail diversion program in Portland, Maine, has released 78 people with pretrial contracts since April 2003, 47 of whom completed the program successfully without committing new crimes.

Since it began with a grant award two years ago, the Portland program has saved $700,000 and 1,600 bed-days at Cumberland County Jail, according to Elizabeth Simoni, executive director of Maine Pretrial Services. Bangor and Penobscot Counties are currently developing similar programs.

Maine's jail diversion programs release offenders whose crimes related to mental illness, sending them instead to community-based treatment and support programs, providing a range of services for mental health, substance abuse, housing, employment, case management, and government benefits.

This integrated approach is essential, because approximately 75 percent of arrestees exhibit signs of mental illness and substance abuse, according to David M. Wertheimer, an expert on jail diversion programs.

Wertheimer spoke last December at the Maine Sentencing Institute, a two-day program held every three years, where over 400 professionals gathered from the mental health, substance abuse, legal, judicial and criminal justice systems.

"We have designed systems that make sense to bureaucrats, funders, agency administrators and service providers, [but] they do not make sense from the perspective of people with multiple problems who need or are seeking our help," said Wertheimer.

The diversity of groups involved in collaborative programs such Portland's "Diverting Offenders to Treatment" make it to easier for the programs to secure grants and gain access to funding.

"You are well on your way in Maine to creating jail diversion programs that work," Wertheimer said. "It gives me great hope that we are making progress."

(2/4/2005)