HB71 would create a commission to study the use and effectiveness of diversion programs throughout the state. Alabama Appleseed supports this legislation for all of the following reasons:

• Alabama’s tangle of overlapping, unaccountable, and expensive diversion programs are not equally available to people who most need them
• Structural obstacles force participants to make unconscionable choices in order to succeed
• Costs, requirements, and access vary widely among counties and programs, providing opportunities for success only to those with greater resources
• Without accessibility, transparency, and reforms that account for the lived reality of people across Alabama, diversion will remain one more element of Alabama’s two-tiered system of punishment

Report: In Trouble: How the Promise of Diversion Clashes with the Reality of Poverty, Addiction, and Structural Racism in Alabama’s Justice System