1 week Ago
It’s a matter of economics. Pretrial diversion could save the Lancaster County taxpayer dollars — lots of dollars. Pretrial diversion means a person charged with a nonviolent crime, but not yet convicted, is not incarcerated.
They are not sent to jail just to await a court date. Instead, connected with a court-appointed official, they are required to meet specific obligations. All individuals charged with nonviolent crimes should be eligible for pretrial diversion.
But we have a system, guided by a county attorney, that ignores the benefits, economic and otherwise, of pretrial diversion. Let’s just look at the economics. Assuming there are an average of 500 individuals jailed at any one time and it costs $135 per day to incarcerate them and that each individual stays an average of 90 days awaiting their court date, it costs taxpayers annually an average of $6 million.
If an individual is provided pretrial diversion, it generally would cost an average of $5,000 annually. People are also reading..
. Not all 500 individuals would be eligible for pretrial diversion. But what if one-third of those jailed, but not yet convicted, could access pretrial diversion? This could potentially save the taxpayer over $1 million per year.
Why then are so few individuals offered this opportunity? By the way, pretrial diversion allows the non-convicted, nonviolent person to keep their job, continue paying taxes, stay with their family, etc. Pretrial diversion is a cost-effective, desirable alternative to incarceration. Let’s expand it and stop wasting money.
Charlotte Liggett, Lincoln Catch the latest in Opinion Get opinion pieces, letters and editorials sent directly to your inbox weekly!.
