I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 5811 

To use Byrne JAG funds for deflection and diversion programs, and for 

other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023 

Mr. RYAN (for himself, Mr. TRONE, Mr. FITZPATRICK, and Mr. MOONEY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the 

Judiciary 

A BILL 

To use Byrne JAG funds for deflection and diversion 

programs, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Public Safety and 

5 Community Support Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DEFLECTION AND PRE-ARREST DIVERSION. 

7 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) Law enforcement officers and other first re9 sponders are at the front line of the opioid epidemic. 

10 However, a traditional law enforcement response to 


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1 substance use often fails to disrupt the cycle of ad2 diction and arrest, or reduce the risk of overdose. 

3 (2) Law enforcement-assisted deflection and di4 version programs have the potential to improve pub5 lic health, decrease the number of people entering 

6 the criminal justice system for low-level offenses, 

7 and address racial disparities. 

8 (3) According to the Bureau of Justice Assist9 ance of the Department of Justice, ‘‘Five pathways 

10 have been most commonly associated with opioid 

11 overdose prevention and diversion to treatment.’’ 

12 The 6 pathways are— 

13 (A) ‘‘self-referral’’, in which— 

14 (i) an individual voluntarily initiates 

15 contact with a first responder, such as a 

16 law enforcement officer, firefighter, or 

17 emergency medical services professional, 

18 for a treatment referral (without fear of 

19 arrest); and 

20 (ii) the first responder personally in21 troduces the individual to a treatment pro22 vider (commonly known as a ‘‘warm hand23 off’’); 

24 (B) ‘‘active outreach’’, in which a law en25 forcement officer or other first responder— 


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1 (i) identifies or seeks out individuals 

2 in need of substance use disorder treat3 ment; and 

4 (ii) makes a warm handoff of such an 

5 individual to a treatment provider, who en6 gages the individual in treatment; 

7 (C) ‘‘naloxone plus’’, in which a law en8 forcement officer or other first responder en9 gages an individual in treatment as a follow-up 

10 to an overdose response; 

11 (D) ‘‘officer prevention referral’’, in which 

12 a law enforcement officer or other first re13 sponder initiates treatment engagement with an 

14 individual, but no criminal charges are filed 

15 against the individual; 

16 (E) ‘‘officer intervention referral’’, in 

17 which— 

18 (i) a law enforcement officer or other 

19 first responder initiates treatment engage20 ment with an individual; and 

21 (ii)(I) criminal charges are filed 

22 against the individual and held in abey23 ance; or 

24 (II) a citation is issued to the in25 dividual; and 


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1 (F) ‘‘community response’’, in which a 

2 team comprising community-based behavioral 

3 health professionals engages individuals to help 

4 de-escalate crises, mediate low-level conflicts, or 

5 address quality of life issues by providing a re6 ferral to treatment, services or to a case man7 ager. 

8 (4) As of the date of enactment of this Act, 

9 there are no national best practices or guidelines for 

10 law enforcement-assisted deflection and diversion 

11 programs. 

12 (b) USE OF BYRNE JAG FUNDS FOR DEFLECTION

13 AND DIVERSION PROGRAMS.—Section 501 of title I of the 

14 Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 

15 U.S.C. 10152) is amended— 

16 (1) in subsection (a)(1)(E), by inserting before 

17 the period at the end the following: ‘‘, including law 

18 enforcement-assisted deflection programs and law 

19 enforcement-assisted pre-arrest and pre-booking di20 version programs (as those terms are defined in sub21 section (h))’’; and 

22 (2) by adding at the end the following: 

23 ‘‘(h) LAW ENFORCEMENT-ASSISTED DEFLECTION

24 PROGRAMS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT-ASSISTED PRE-AR25 REST AND PRE-BOOKING DIVERSION PROGRAMS.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 

2 ‘‘(A) COVERED GRANT.—The term ‘cov3 ered grant’ means a grant for a deflection or di4 version program awarded under subsection 

5 (a)(1)(E). 

6 ‘‘(B) DEFLECTION OR DIVERSION PRO7 GRAM.—The term ‘deflection or diversion pro8 gram’ means a law enforcement-assisted deflec9 tion program or a law enforcement-assisted pre10 arrest or pre-booking diversion, including a pro11 gram under which— 

12 ‘‘(i) an individual voluntarily initiates 

13 contact with a first responder for a sub14 stance use disorder or mental health treat15 ment referral without fear of arrest and re16 ceives a warm handoff to such treatment; 

17 ‘‘(ii) a law enforcement officer or 

18 other first responder identifies or seeks out 

19 individuals in need of substance use dis20 order or mental health treatment and a 

21 warm handoff is made to a treatment pro22 vider, who engages the individuals in treat23 ment; 

24 ‘‘(iii) a law enforcement officer or 

25 other first responder engages an individual 


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1 in substance use disorder treatment as 

2 part of an overdose response; 

3 ‘‘(iv) a law enforcement officer or 

4 other first responder initiates substance 

5 use disorder or mental health treatment 

6 engagement, but no criminal charges are 

7 filed; 

8 ‘‘(v) a law enforcement officer or 

9 other first responder initiates substance 

10 use disorder or mental health treatment 

11 engagement with an individual; or 

12 ‘‘(vi) charges are filed against an indi13 vidual who has committed an offense that 

14 is not a crime against a person, and the 

15 primary cause of which appears to be 

16 based on a substance use disorder or men17 tal health disorder and held in abeyance or 

18 a citation is issued to such an individual. 

19 ‘‘(C) LAW ENFORCEMENT-ASSISTED DE20 FLECTION PROGRAM.—The term ‘law enforce21 ment-assisted deflection program’ means a pro22 gram under which a law enforcement officer, 

23 when encountering an individual who is not en24 gaged in criminal activity but appears to have 

25 a substance use disorder or mental health disVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:47 Oct 10, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5811.IH H5811

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1 order, instead of taking no action at the time 

2 of contact or taking action at a later time, at3 tempts to connect the individual to substance 

4 use disorder treatment providers or mental 

5 health treatment providers— 

6 ‘‘(i) without the use of coercion or 

7 fear of arrest; and 

8 ‘‘(ii) using established pathways for 

9 connections to local, community-based 

10 treatment. 

11 ‘‘(D) LAW ENFORCEMENT-ASSISTED PRE12 ARREST OR PRE-BOOKING DIVERSION PRO13 GRAM.—The term ‘law enforcement-assisted 

14 pre-arrest or pre-booking diversion program’ 

15 means a program— 

16 ‘‘(i) under which a law enforcement 

17 officer, when encountering an individual 

18 who has committed an offense that is not 

19 a crime against a person, and the primary 

20 cause of which appears to be based on a 

21 substance use disorder or the mental 

22 health disorder of the individual, instead of 

23 arresting the individual, or instead of 

24 booking the individual after having ar25 rested the individual, attempts to connect 


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1 the individual to substance use disorder 

2 treatment providers or mental health treat3 ment providers— 

4 ‘‘(I) without the use of coercion; 

5 and 

6 ‘‘(II) using established pathways 

7 for connections to local, community8 based treatment; 

9 ‘‘(ii) under which, in the case of pre10 arrest diversion, a law enforcement officer 

11 described in clause (i) may decide to— 

12 ‘‘(I) issue a civil citation; or 

13 ‘‘(II) take no action with respect 

14 to the offense for which the officer 

15 would otherwise have arrested the in16 dividual described in clause (i); and 

17 ‘‘(iii) that may authorize a law en18 forcement officer to refer an individual to 

19 substance use disorder treatment providers 

20 or mental health treatment providers if the 

21 individual appears to have a substance use 

22 disorder or mental health disorder and the 

23 officer suspects the individual of chronic 

24 violations of law but lacks probable cause 


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1 to arrest the individual (commonly known 

2 as a ‘social contact referral’). 

3 ‘‘(2) SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING DEFLEC4 TION OR DIVERSION PROGRAMS.—It is the sense of 

5 Congress that a deflection or diversion program 

6 funded under this subpart should not exclude indi7 viduals who are chronically exposed to the criminal 

8 justice system. 

9 ‘‘(3) REPORTS TO ATTORNEY GENERAL.—Not 

10 later than 2 years after the date on which a State 

11 or unit of local government is awarded a covered 

12 grant, and each year thereafter until the date that 

13 is 1 year after the date on which the period of the 

14 covered grant ends, the State or unit of local govern15 ment shall submit a report to the Attorney General 

16 that includes information relating to the deflection 

17 or diversion program carried out by the State or 

18 unit of local government, including information re19 lating to— 

20 ‘‘(A) the goals of the deflection or diver21 sion program; 

22 ‘‘(B) any evidence-based interventions car23 ried out under the deflection or diversion pro24 gram; 


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1 ‘‘(C) outcomes of the deflection or diver2 sion program, which shall— 

3 ‘‘(i) be reported in a manner that dis4 tinguishes the outcomes based on the cat5 egories of, with respect to the participants 

6 in the deflection or diversion program— 

7 ‘‘(I) the race of the participants; 

8 and 

9 ‘‘(II) the gender of the partici10 pants; and 

11 ‘‘(ii) include information relating to 

12 the rate of reincarceration among partici13 pants in the deflection or diversion pro14 gram, if available; and 

15 ‘‘(D) expenditures under the deflection or 

16 diversion program.’’. 

17 (c) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM.— 

18 (1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection— 

19 (A) the term ‘‘deflection or diversion pro20 gram’’ has the meaning given the term in sub21 section (h) of section 501 of title I of the Omni22 bus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 

23 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10152), as added by sub24 section (b); and 


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1 (B) the terms ‘‘State’’ and ‘‘unit of local 

2 government’’ have the meanings given those 

3 terms in section 901 of title I of the Omnibus 

4 Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 

5 (34 U.S.C. 10251). 

6 (2) GRANT AUTHORIZED.—The Attorney Gen7 eral shall award a single grant to an entity with sig8 nificant experience in working with law enforcement 

9 agencies, community-based treatment providers, and 

10 other community-based human service providers to 

11 develop or administer both deflection and diversion 

12 programs that use each of the 6 pathways described 

13 in subsection (a)(3), to promote and maximize the 

14 effectiveness and racial equity of deflection or diver15 sion programs, in order to— 

16 (A) help State and units of local govern17 ment launch and expand deflection or diversion 

18 programs; 

19 (B) develop best practices for deflection or 

20 diversion teams, which shall include— 

21 (i) recommendations on community 

22 input and engagement in order to imple23 ment deflection or diversion programs as 

24 rapidly as possible and with regard to the 

25 particular needs of a community, including 


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1 regular community meetings and other 

2 mechanisms for engagement with— 

3 (I) law enforcement agencies; 

4 (II) community-based treatment 

5 providers and other community-based 

6 human service providers; 

7 (III) the recovery community; 

8 and 

9 (IV) the community at-large; and 

10 (ii) the implementation of metrics to 

11 measure community satisfaction con12 cerning the meaningful participation and 

13 interaction of the community with the de14 flection or diversion program and program 

15 stakeholders; 

16 (C) develop and publish a training and 

17 technical assistance tool kit for deflection or di18 version for public education purposes; 

19 (D) disseminate uniform criteria and 

20 standards for the delivery of deflection or diver21 sion program services; and 

22 (E) develop outcome measures that can be 

23 used to continuously inform and improve social, 

24 clinical, financial and racial equity outcomes. 


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1 (3) TERM.—The term of the grant awarded 

2 under paragraph (2) shall be 5 years. 

3 (4) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 

4 There are authorized to be appropriated to the At5 torney General $30,000,000 for the grant under 

6 paragraph (2). 

Æ 


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