L
ast year, a group of advocates, city and county justice and human service officials, academics and foundation representatives held a series of meetings on implementing a program that could both reduce the disparate number of low-risk Black offenders in the Allegheny County jail, but also help repair the strained relationships between police and Pittsburgh’s African American communities.
Called LEAD, for Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, the program diverts select non-violent defenders into a human service and treatment regimen rather than to jail at the point of arrest. Prosecutors hold the charges in abeyance pending completion of the program.
It sounded like, as Alliance for Police Accountability Executive Director Brandi Fisher called it, “a no brainer,” especially since then Pittsburgh Zone 1 Cmdr. Rashall Brackney and Northside Coalition for Fair Housing President and CEO Ronell Guy were set to roll out a pilot version in select neighborhoods.
Fast forward to last week, and the University of Pittsburgh Institute of Politics released its Criminal Justice Task Force report on improving incarceration policies and practices in Allegheny County. Among it’s recommendations:
“Police, courts, and the district attorney should develop and use proven alternatives to arrest and booking, including establishing programs to divert individuals who otherwise might have been charged with nonviolent offenses into community-based treatment and support services, using summons in lieu of arrests, and establishing community-based restorative justice programs.”
Given that Allegheny County Public Defender Elliott Howsie, Allegheny County Human Services Director Marc Cherna, Buhl Foundation Chair for Civic Leadership Fred Thieman and Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto’s Deputy Chief for Education LaTrenda Leonard Sherrill attended the meetings and served on the task force, seeing the recommendation is not a surprise.
The surprise is that things have not progressed past the recommendation stage. The first setback occurred when Brackney was put in charge of the Major Crimes Unit, which put the roll out on hold. She then retired and, despite support from former Chief Cameron McLay, no one in the Pittsburgh police has been tasked to revive the program.
“Her initiative went beyond (what was called) PIRC and it ended when she was made commander of Major Crimes,” said Public Safety Information Officer Sonya Toler. “I am aware of different diversion programs operating in other cities, but there is currently nothing like that here.”
As Howsie noted previously, Allegheny County has several initiatives to divert minor criminals to service programs, but they are all post-arrest. So the possible pre-arrest benefits—no official record to harm employment or housing opportunities, no added strain on families, etc. are lost.
And though, as Howsie said, the program is customizable in terms of the kind of crimes and offenders who would qualify, there has to be agreement among all the officers in every county department, every district magistrate and the district attorney about what those criteria are. As of now, they have neither been established nor agreed upon.
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala’s office was not part of the task force, nor was it represented at any of the LEAD meetings. Emails requesting comment were not received by Courier deadline.
Like us at https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Pittsburgh-Courier/143866755628836?ref=hl
Follow @NewPghCourier on Twitter https://twitter.com/NewPghCourier
