With people going to prison for possessing minuscule amounts of narcotics in Washington in the late 90s, the King County prosecutor’s office almost went broke and faced layoffs. Seattle criminal justice officials back then also had to answer for stark racial disparities in drug arrests and prison sentences.
Something had to change. Contentious debates among public officials followed for years, recalled Kris Nyrop, director of harm reduction practices at the Public Defender Association in Seattle.
It was a question from an exasperated police captain that helped change Seattle’s criminal justice system: “What would you have us do different?”
Nyrop helped create Seattle’s post-arrest and pre-jail Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program, known as LEAD. He and independent consultant Robert Childs presented a session about the program during the first day of the South Central Opioid Summit on Tuesday.
Seattle officials spent more than two years creating the LEAD program with three key questions in mind, Nyrop said:
“What if we could make arrests the strategy of absolute last resort for Seattle Police?”
“What if we could take a negative experience and turn it into something that was positive? Not just for the individual but for the police and the community.”
“What if it was actually cheaper than what we’re doing now?”
The LEAD program in Seattle launched in October 2011. People in possession of less than three grams of drugs and sex workers were able to participate, provided they did not have criminal histories with violent felony charges.
Drug offenders and sex workers who encountered police had choices: arrests and trips to the King County Jail or immediate referrals to case managers, who arrived on scene and took over for officers.