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) in-
troduced 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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Public Safety and 
Community Support Act’’. 
SEC. 2. DEFLECTION AND PRE-ARREST DIVERSION. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
(1) Law enforcement officers and other first re-
sponders are at the front line of the opioid epidemic. 
However, a traditional law enforcement response to 
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substance use often fails to disrupt the cycle of ad-
diction and arrest, or reduce the risk of overdose. 
(2) Law enforcement-assisted deflection and di-
version programs have the potential to improve pub-
lic health, decrease the number of people entering 
the criminal justice system for low-level offenses, 
and address racial disparities. 
(3) According to the Bureau of Justice Assist-
ance of the Department of Justice, ‘‘Five pathways 
have been most commonly associated with opioid 
overdose prevention and diversion to treatment.’’ 
The 6 pathways are— 
(A) ‘‘self-referral’’, in which— 
(i) an individual voluntarily initiates 
contact with a first responder, such as a 
law enforcement officer, firefighter, or 
emergency medical services professional, 
for a treatment referral (without fear of 
arrest); and 
(ii) the first responder personally in-
troduces the individual to a treatment pro-
vider (commonly known as a ‘‘warm hand-
off’’); 
(B) ‘‘active outreach’’, in which a law en-
forcement officer or other first responder— 
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(i) identifies or seeks out individuals 
in need of substance use disorder treat-
ment; and 
(ii) makes a warm handoff of such an 
individual to a treatment provider, who en-
gages the individual in treatment; 
(C) ‘‘naloxone plus’’, in which a law en-
forcement officer or other first responder en-
gages an individual in treatment as a follow-up 
to an overdose response; 
(D) ‘‘officer prevention referral’’, in which 
a law enforcement officer or other first re-
sponder initiates treatment engagement with an 
individual, but no criminal charges are filed 
against the individual; 
(E) ‘‘officer intervention referral’’, in 
which— 
(i) a law enforcement officer or other 
first responder initiates treatment engage-
ment with an individual; and 
(ii)(I) criminal charges are filed 
against the individual and held in abey-
ance; or 
(II) a citation is issued to the in-
dividual; and 
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(F) ‘‘community response’’, in which a 
team comprising community-based behavioral 
health professionals engages individuals to help 
de-escalate crises, mediate low-level conflicts, or 
address quality of life issues by providing a re-
ferral to treatment, services or to a case man-
ager. 
(4) As of the date of enactment of this Act, 
there are no national best practices or guidelines for 
law enforcement-assisted deflection and diversion 
programs. 
(b) USE OF BYRNE JAG FUNDS FOR DEFLECTION 
AND DIVERSION PROGRAMS.—Section 501 of title I of the 
Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 
U.S.C. 10152) is amended— 
(1) in subsection (a)(1)(E), by inserting before 
the period at the end the following: ‘‘, including law 
enforcement-assisted deflection programs and law 
enforcement-assisted pre-arrest and pre-booking di-
version programs (as those terms are defined in sub-
section (h))’’; and 
(2) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(h) LAW ENFORCEMENT-ASSISTED DEFLECTION 
PROGRAMS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT-ASSISTED PRE-AR-
REST AND PRE-BOOKING DIVERSION PROGRAMS.— 
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order, instead of taking no action at the time 
of contact or taking action at a later time, at-
tempts to connect the individual to substance 
use disorder treatment providers or mental 
health treatment providers— 
‘‘(i) without the use of coercion or 
fear of arrest; and 
‘‘(ii) using established pathways for 
connections 
to 
local, 
community-based 
treatment. 
‘‘(D) LAW ENFORCEMENT-ASSISTED PRE- 
ARREST
OR
PRE-BOOKING
DIVERSION
PRO-
GRAM.—The term ‘law enforcement-assisted 
pre-arrest or pre-booking diversion program’ 
means a program— 
‘‘(i) under which a law enforcement 
officer, when encountering an individual 
who has committed an offense that is not 
a crime against a person, and the primary 
cause of which appears to be based on a 
substance use disorder or the mental 
health disorder of the individual, instead of 
arresting the individual, or instead of 
booking the individual after having ar-
rested the individual, attempts to connect 
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the individual to substance use disorder 
treatment providers or mental health treat-
ment providers— 
‘‘(I) without the use of coercion; 
and 
‘‘(II) using established pathways 
for connections to local, community- 
based treatment; 
‘‘(ii) under which, in the case of pre- 
arrest diversion, a law enforcement officer 
described in clause (i) may decide to— 
‘‘(I) issue a civil citation; or 
‘‘(II) take no action with respect 
to the offense for which the officer 
would otherwise have arrested the in-
dividual described in clause (i); and 
‘‘(iii) that may authorize a law en-
forcement officer to refer an individual to 
substance use disorder treatment providers 
or mental health treatment providers if the 
individual appears to have a substance use 
disorder or mental health disorder and the 
officer suspects the individual of chronic 
violations of law but lacks probable cause 
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to arrest the individual (commonly known 
as a ‘social contact referral’). 
‘‘(2) SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING DEFLEC-
TION OR DIVERSION PROGRAMS.—It is the sense of 
Congress that a deflection or diversion program 
funded under this subpart should not exclude indi-
viduals who are chronically exposed to the criminal 
justice system. 
‘‘(3) REPORTS TO ATTORNEY GENERAL.—Not 
later than 2 years after the date on which a State 
or unit of local government is awarded a covered 
grant, and each year thereafter until the date that 
is 1 year after the date on which the period of the 
covered grant ends, the State or unit of local govern-
ment shall submit a report to the Attorney General 
that includes information relating to the deflection 
or diversion program carried out by the State or 
unit of local government, including information re-
lating to— 
‘‘(A) the goals of the deflection or diver-
sion program; 
‘‘(B) any evidence-based interventions car-
ried out under the deflection or diversion pro-
gram; 
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‘‘(C) outcomes of the deflection or diver-
sion program, which shall— 
‘‘(i) be reported in a manner that dis-
tinguishes the outcomes based on the cat-
egories of, with respect to the participants 
in the deflection or diversion program— 
‘‘(I) the race of the participants; 
and 
‘‘(II) the gender of the partici-
pants; and 
‘‘(ii) include information relating to 
the rate of reincarceration among partici-
pants in the deflection or diversion pro-
gram, if available; and 
‘‘(D) expenditures under the deflection or 
diversion program.’’. 
(c) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM.— 
(1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection— 
(A) the term ‘‘deflection or diversion pro-
gram’’ has the meaning given the term in sub-
section (h) of section 501 of title I of the Omni-
bus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 
1968 (34 U.S.C. 10152), as added by sub-
section (b); and 
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(B) the terms ‘‘State’’ and ‘‘unit of local 
government’’ have the meanings given those 
terms in section 901 of title I of the Omnibus 
Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 
(34 U.S.C. 10251). 
(2) GRANT AUTHORIZED.—The Attorney Gen-
eral shall award a single grant to an entity with sig-
nificant experience in working with law enforcement 
agencies, community-based treatment providers, and 
other community-based human service providers to 
develop or administer both deflection and diversion 
programs that use each of the 6 pathways described 
in subsection (a)(3), to promote and maximize the 
effectiveness and racial equity of deflection or diver-
sion programs, in order to— 
(A) help State and units of local govern-
ment launch and expand deflection or diversion 
programs; 
(B) develop best practices for deflection or 
diversion teams, which shall include— 
(i) recommendations on community 
input and engagement in order to imple-
ment deflection or diversion programs as 
rapidly as possible and with regard to the 
particular needs of a community, including 
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regular community meetings and other 
mechanisms for engagement with— 
(I) law enforcement agencies; 
(II) community-based treatment 
providers and other community-based 
human service providers; 
(III) the recovery community; 
and 
(IV) the community at-large; and 
(ii) the implementation of metrics to 
measure 
community 
satisfaction 
con-
cerning the meaningful participation and 
interaction of the community with the de-
flection or diversion program and program 
stakeholders; 
(C) develop and publish a training and 
technical assistance tool kit for deflection or di-
version for public education purposes; 
(D) disseminate uniform criteria and 
standards for the delivery of deflection or diver-
sion program services; and 
(E) develop outcome measures that can be 
used to continuously inform and improve social, 
clinical, financial and racial equity outcomes. 
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(3) TERM.—The term of the grant awarded 
under paragraph (2) shall be 5 years. 
(4) AUTHORIZATION
OF
APPROPRIATIONS.— 
There are authorized to be appropriated to the At-
torney General $30,000,000 for the grant under 
paragraph (2). 
Æ 
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