'A holistic reprimand': Defendants less likely to reoffend after Missoula pretrial program
After landing in the Missoula County jail last year for violating a restraining order filed by his father, Justin Sell says he was finally ready to come to grips with what had been a 22-year spiral of alcohol and drug abuse.
"I was living with my dad and it was getting out of hand," Sell recalled in a recent interview with the Missoulian. "My dad noticed that he couldn't help me, and he filed a restraining order against me so that I'd get kicked out and sober up."
Sell, 48, didn't have much of a criminal history, but was facing charges for trespassing and violating a protective order. The Coast Guard veteran said his post-military career in the restaurant industry had fueled a tendency to self-medicate for his previously undiagnosed schizophrenia.
He said his background and willingness to get better, however, led his public defender to recommend him for Missoula County's pretrial diversion program, Calibrate. Ray Reiser, the program coordinator for the county, has overseen Calibrate since its inception five years ago.
"In general, when we interview folks we want to find someone that may not have an extensive criminal history," Reiser said, "someone that's not charged with serious crimes like sex offenses or serious crimes of violence, but someone who's more amenable toward diversion."
The diversion program was created under former County Attorney Kirsten Pabst to focus on helping low-level criminal defendants address the underlying issues that got them arrested. And according to a recent study by researchers at the University of Montana, it's been working.
Calibrate gets top marks in UM study
Criminal defendants who completed the pretrial diversion program were 87% less likely to reoffend than similar defendants who didn't participate, according to the final report, published by UM's Department of Sociology and Criminology. Even Calibrate participants who failed to complete the program were less than half as likely to reoffend than that control group, which was selected from defendants whose cases were resolved prior to the program's creation in September 2019.
Reiser said the report "told us that we're doing the right thing on a couple of different levels."
"We're moving people out of the criminal justice system instead of into it, we're saving resources, we're saving taxpayer dollars and we're reducing crime," Reiser said.
Over the five years that the county has been running its pretrial program, 148 defendants participated in Calibrate, according to the study, out of a total 180 people who were screened for the program. To evaluate the success of those defendants, researchers pulled together a comparison group of Calibrate-eligible defendants from the years before the pretrial diversion program existed.
Admission into the Calibrate program is based on referrals from prosecutors, defense attorneys and in some cases law enforcement. Reiser said he works with defendants to identify the issues that brought them into the criminal justice system, and tailors a program that can include drug or alcohol counseling, mental health treatment, community service or other interventions.
For property crimes like defacing property, for example, the participant might be required to clean up graffiti in the community and seek treatment for underlying issues. If they successfully complete the program, county prosecutors will dismiss the charges — although restitution might still be required.
"The carrot at the end is that that individual does not receive a criminal conviction, which is a pretty big benefit," Reiser said. He added that diversion also aims to head off escalating legal troubles, like felony charges.
That was a factor in Sell's decision to enter the pretrial program in the spring of 2023. He felt ready to finally get sober and thinks something like catching a DUI was "bound to happen" if he kept going in the same direction.
"I was all-in," Sell said.
He met with Reiser, who told him he needed to focus on staying sober, keeping up with his medication and regularly seeing a therapist at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Sell called it "a holistic reprimand."
Fourteen months later, he graduated from the program with over a year of sobriety under his belt, more mental clarity and an improved relationship with his family.
"It's been sobering, man," Sell said with a laugh.
Who gets to use Calibrate?
Researchers also found that the rates for which different groups of people were accepted into the program reflect Missoula County's overall demographics. The participants were about a 50-50 split between men and women, a median age of 35 and and a racial makeup that was 88% white.
"We do know minorities are over-represented in the criminal justice system," Reiser said. "Out of the study, we learned from our small snapshot the folks that we are working with in diversion, there is not an over-representation of one ethnic group."
The study didn't specify what the remaining 12% of Calibrate participants' ethnic makeup was. Native Americans, the largest minority group in Montana, comprised 17% of the Missoula County jail's average daily population from January through September of this year, according to data published on the county's website. Just 3% of the county's overall population is Native, according U.S. Census data.
About 40% of defendants accepted into Calibrate are accused of property crimes, according to the study. About 20% were charged with violent offenses and 14% were accused of drug crimes. About three-quarters of the referrals came from prosecutors, with the rest mostly coming from defense attorneys.
The researchers also concluded from interviews with prosecutors and defense attorneys that the program got top marks from lawyers on both sides. The report included unattributed quotes from several attorneys interviewed for the study.
"When someone is able to come in and work through their deferred prosecution agreement and meet all their requirements and not have a criminal conviction, that's a win for everybody," one said. "... When we have those cases, those are kind of the glimmers that keep you going in this otherwise very difficult work."
Reiser said one area of improvement the study identified was determining who makes a good candidate for the program.
"There was a sort of consistent theme (in interviews with attorneys) that the eligibility criteria was a little unclear, and they probably felt like it was a bit of a moving target," Reiser said.
He said he's worked to clarify those criteria for local defense attorneys. DUIs, sex crimes and violations of protective orders are ineligible for Calibrate, as are felony cases involving violent crime and drug trafficking.
"I think we know, in criminal justice a lot of times, that what we're doing doesn't always work perfectly, and I think we have a duty to continue to try to improve on that," Reiser said.
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