Findings
The following chart summarizes the findings of our examination of states’ criminal justice diversion efforts:
State |
Percentage of population
|
Percentage of population
|
Average Percentage |
Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Utah | 87% | 97% | 91% | A+ |
| Florida | 67% | 97% | 82% | A |
| California | 78% | 79% | 79% | A |
| Ohio | 63% | 88% | 76% | A |
| Connecticut | 100% | 37% | 69% | B+ |
| Illinois | 78% | 59% | 69% | B+ |
| Idaho | 76% | 58% | 67% | B+ |
| Nevada | 88% | 37% | 63% | B |
| Washington | 62% | 63% | 63% | B |
| Colorado | 35% | 86% | 61% | B |
| Georgia | 49% | 70% | 60% | B |
| Maine | 34% | 83% | 59% | B |
| New Mexico | 63% | 50% | 57% | B |
| North Carolina | 24% | 87% | 56% | B |
| Arizona | 21% | 84% | 53% | B- |
| Minnesota | 31% | 70% | 51% | B- |
| Delaware | 100% | 0% | 50% | B- |
| Oklahoma | 59% | 40% | 50% | B- |
| Pennsylvania | 60% | 40% | 50% | B- |
| Oregon | 54% | 38% | 46% | C+ |
| Kentucky | 28% | 61% | 45% | C+ |
| Missouri | 51% | 38% | 45% | C+ |
| Alaska | 44% | 44% | 44% | C |
| Hawaii | 70% | 12% | 41% | C |
| Nebraska | 42% | 40% | 41% | C |
| New York | 75% | 5% | 40% | C |
| Virginia | 6% | 70% | 38% | C |
| Texas | 44% | 27% | 36% | C |
| Wisconsin | 11% | 60% | 36% | C |
| Kansas | 18% | 49% | 34% | C- |
| Tennessee | 16% | 51% | 34% | C- |
| Indiana | 25% | 37% | 31% | C- |
| Maryland | 30% | 31% | 31% | C- |
| New Hampshire | 40% | 19% | 30% | C- |
| North Dakota | 22% | 34% | 28% | D |
| Michigan | 48% | 3% | 26% | D |
| Wyoming | 0% | 52% | 26% | D |
| Montana | 17% | 30% | 24% | D |
| Louisiana | 8% | 38% | 23% | D |
| New Jersey | 7% | 33% | 20% | D |
| South Carolina | 27% | 10% | 19% | F |
| Vermont | 35% | 1% | 18% | F |
| Alabama | 34% | 0% | 17% | F |
| South Dakota | 0% | 29% | 15% | F |
| Iowa | 8% | 13% | 11% | F |
| Massachusetts | 13% | 3% | 8% | F |
| Mississippi | 2% | 13% | 8% | F |
| Arkansas | 10% | 0% | 5% | F |
| West Virginia | 9% | 0% | 5% | F |
| Rhode Island | 0% | 0% | 0% | F |
| National Average | 48% | 49% | 49% | C+ |
The outlying performance of the District of Columbia, while certainly commendable, merits qualification. Because the District is a single jurisdiction, the only possible result for each practice was zero (no program), or 100%. The comparison to multi-jurisdiction states here is misleading.
Among the 50 states, only Utah, Florida, California and Ohio have very high prevalence rates for both of the measured diversion practices. Some other states have strikingly lopsided results: either laudable on mental health courts and paltry on CIT (New York, Delaware) or vice versa (Virginia, North Carolina).
The results are alarmingly bottom-heavy. One-third of the states earn grades of D or F based on an averaging of the two penetration rates. Several at the very bottom have little or no adoption of either practice (Arkansas, West Virginia, Rhode Island).