Public Safety
Pretrial Diversion Program
Adult Pretrial Diversion also conducts pre-sentence investigations, when so ordered by the courts. Pretrial Diversion helps to keep the County Court dockets more manageable by diverting many first-time offenders out of the traditional prosecution pathways into contractual obligations imposing non-judicial sanctions, allowing prosecutors to pursue the resolution of more serious offenses within traditional prosecution paths.
The program averages approximately 590 to 600 clients participating at any time, with yearly totals of processed offenders in excess of 1,400. It is anticipated that the program participant numbers will continue to increase as budget issues encourage alternatives to the traditional prosecution “pipeline.”
The Post Booking/Mental Health program is provided countywide and is designed to assist those defendants identified with mental health issues that have been arrested and booked into the John E. Polk Correctional facility. These defendants are diverted out of the court system and jail into a Mental Health diversion program. They are evaluated, and a treatment plan is set up to help them cope with their illness. The program involves collaboration between the jail, the courts, the Public Defender’s Office, the State Attorney’s Office, the Seminole County Department of Public Safety Division of County Probation and the Seminole Community Mental Health Center. Successful compliance results in a dismissal of their charges while unsuccessful compliance results in a return to the court for continued prosecution.