City prosecutor launches felony diversion program, federal grant will fund innovative response to select first-time gun charges

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce will soon give certain individuals charged with illegal gun possession an alternative to prosecution and the possibility of prison time: a diversionary program that combines social services, job training and community service with supervision.

In a city that suffers from persistent gun violence and historical and ongoing inequality, Joyce believes the program, made possible by a competitive $417,512 grant from the Department of Justice, can both reduce crime and enhance economic opportunity.

Its potential for success relies on the observation that individuals illegally carry firearms for varying reasons.

“Evidence in St. Louis indicates that a significant number of individuals who are arrested and charged with illegal gun possession exhibit some characteristics that indicate they do not harbor intent to commit further criminal acts, but rather are in possession of a weapon for a reason such as personal defense, ‘style’ or peer pressure,” the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office wrote in its grant application.

“What we see is a lot of really young people carrying guns,” Joyce explained to The American. “Maybe they’re arrested carrying concealed when they’re still in high school or just turned 17. Maybe they don’t have a troubling prior history, but they’re carrying a gun because that’s what’s done in their social circle. There’s a lot of peer pressure to carry a gun now.”

The program is geared toward those individuals, and it promises to be the first of its kind within the United States, Philippa Barrett, the office’s director of Diversion and Special Court Programs, said.

The office will accept referrals from anyone in the pipeline – a judge, defense attorney, even staff prosecutor working a case – and Joyce is just beginning an effort to publicize the program.

The structure of the gun diversion program will almost certainly resemble the office’s general felony redirect program that launched on June 1. In that program, eligible individuals – generally those without prior convictions, though prosecutors can exercise discretion over the program’s enrollment – receive individualized social services with an eye toward keeping them out of the criminal justice system in the future.

Barrett said they have screened about 50 candidates for the general felony redirect program, and currently have five people in the program, four others preparing to enter it and more being screened.

But unlike the general felony redirect and other criminal diversion programs, the participants in the new program will all have had a gun-related charge brought against them.

Partially for that reason, participation will be strictly limited. Plus, it will come at a cost.

As with the felony redirect program, staff within the crime strategies unit in Joyce’s office will vet all candidates to ensure that they are not part of known crime circles. If individuals clear that hurdle, the state’s probation and parole office will conduct an in-depth inquiry into their background.

If they clear that second hurdle, individuals will be allowed to join the program, but only after they plead guilty to the gun-related charge. After successful completion of the program – generally a yearlong process – prosecutors will support withdrawal of the guilty plea and, with a judge’s approval, dismiss the case.

The potential upside is that successful participants will have the opportunity to join the workforce and pursue a career without the albatross of a gun-related conviction following them the rest of their life. Instead, the proceeding becomes a confidential record, according to Barrett.

“If we do our job well and it works, we can have people turned around and productive members of society rather than going to prison, which for young people is finishing school for criminals and coming out committed to a life of crime,” Joyce said.

Still, the politics and potential backfire of keeping armed offenders within the community are not lost on Joyce.

“It’s a very perilous thing. For most people when they hear it, they’re like: ‘Hell, no, I would never do that,’” Joyce said. “ But we believe that we can do it in a way that protects the public and reduces gun crime.”

Barrett added that she looks forward to the data that the project will gather, in hopes that the information will help guide future best practices. The city’s escalating level of gun violence showed that, overall, current efforts to curb or contain gun violence haven’t worked, she said.

Another reason that Joyce is optimistic about the new gun diversion program is that she hopes to make wearing a tracking device she calls “the screamer” a condition of enrollment.

Already, law enforcement monitors the location of some offenders with tracking bracelets. The screamer is a new technology that functions like these devices, except that when offenders enter an “exclusion zone,” the device provides a warning through a two-way radio with law enforcement. If the offender does not heed the warning and exit the zone, the device emits a 95-decibel siren.

“The whole goal is to disrupt this kid’s lifestyle and get him away from people that are not good for him,” Joyce said. “Nothing like a 95-decibel siren to make him uncool to hang with on the street corner.”

But Joyce acknowledged that her personal enthusiasm for the device was not binding. Ultimately, she will need bench approval for all major decisions.

The $417,512 grant that is supporting the program’s launch will pay for a social worker, an analyst, support staff and research consultants for two years. Joyce described the grant as highly competitive. Scott Decker, a criminologist at Arizona State University, and Noelle Fearn at Saint Louis University will be the research consultants.

Kevin Flannery is a St. Louis American editorial intern from Washington University School of Law.