Calibrating Success: How the County Attorney's Office Effectively Redirects Defendants

In 2019, the Missoula County Attorney’s Office debuted a program called Calibrate, with the goal of moving people out of the criminal legal system and addressing the root cause of why they found themselves involved with it in the first place. Calibrate is a prosecution-led pretrial diversion program, meaning eligible candidates meet individualized milestones, like community service or counseling, in place of awaiting trial and court proceedings. To date, diversion coordinator Ray Reiser has enrolled 106 individuals, and close to 90% of them have successfully graduated from Calibrate.

This week, the commissioners talked with Ray about how Calibrate works, who is eligible to participate and the importance of separating low-risk individuals from high-risk individuals. Tune in to learn more about how Calibrate helps the entire criminal legal system, from courts to the jail to probation, function more effectively.

Learn more:

• Calibrate 
• Federal grant to bolster Missoula program aimed at helping drug offenders - Missoulian, January 2022

Thank you to Missoula's Community Media Resource for podcast recording support!

Thank you to Missoula's Community Media Resource for podcast recording support!

Transcript

Dave Strohmaier: 0:10

[intro music plays] Welcome back, everyone, commissioners. I'm Dave Strohmaier, and I'm joined today with my fellow commissioners, Juanita Vero and Josh Slotnick. And also today, we are delighted to be joined by Ray Reiser, the diversion coordinator in the county Attorney's office. Thank you for joining us today, Ray, on this Halloween day in October.

Ray Reiser: 0:32

Yes, thank you for having me.

Josh Slotnick: 0:33

So today we're going to talk about a county prosecution-led pretrial diversion program, that's a real mouthful, that was started in 2019. So, Ray, can you give us some background on Calibrate and its context? What is it and why did we create it?

Ray Reiser: 0:48

Sure. So the program is, in fact, based in And what we're doing here is we've provided a new and innovative way of handling criminal cases. And it's a little different from your traditional prosecution model. So typically someone goes to jail charged with a crime and they're faced with the court process. And that's going to involve lots of court hearings, lots of court activity and eventually maybe a trial. And we're trying to determine whether or not that that individual is guilty or innocent. And and if they're guilty, what kind of sentence should that person receive? Now, with Calibrate, we've actually removed the person from the court proceedings. It is a voluntary program, voluntary process. And if an individual is involved in the program, they're asked to engage in a program or a certain aspects that they would need to do, and that might include some counseling, maybe community service, maybe payment of restitution, if the victim is owed some money, could involve drug and alcohol monitoring in some cases, and provided that person successfully completes everything that's asked of them, the charge against them is actually dismissed. You asked, "Why was this created?" Well, it was created for a couple of reasons. I look at it like an opportunity to address those underlying causes of why that individual has found himself in trouble with the law. Additionally, I think it's entirely correct to say that not every person that's charged with a crime needs to be convicted of that crime in order to achieve the ultimate outcome of justice. I think there are ways, frankly, in our system that we can get to justice without reaching that criminal conviction. And lastly, I think it makes good financial sense and it saves the taxpayers significant amount of money to have fewer people in jail and fewer people on probation. And our corrections system.

Juanita Vero: 2:25

How is Calibrate, the program, a different defendant. And what's rehabilitative about it?

Ray Reiser: 2:33

Well, of course, there's no court appearances Once the individual is enrolled in the program, they're not working with their attorney. They're not dealing with different motions in court and going to court and stuff like this. Instead, they're working with me or my coworker, Maria McClean, works with me and there's no trial involved here. We've really taken it out of the court process. And by the way, by doing that, we're freeing up court resources, time and resources in the court system, and there's a great benefit there as well. And ultimately, as I mentioned earlier, the benefit to that individual, to that defendant is the dismissal of the charge against them. And I think you asked about the rehabilitative aspect. So what we're doing here is, again, we want to address those underlying causes. All right. So if we have an individual who might be dealing with substance use, they're going to be asked to engage in some sort of counseling to address that substance use. Similarly, maybe they have an underlying mental illness. We want to connect them with the right mental health services to address that, all with the idea of stabilizing our clients and keeping them out of the criminal justice system in the future. So when I talk about things like treatment to match what an individual might be dealing with, there's actually a term here and it's called the risk need responsivity model. It's matching our clients with the right level of services to address whatever it is that they might be dealing with.

Dave Strohmaier: 3:47

So the question that's probably on a lot of who is eligible for this program?

Ray Reiser: 3:55

That's a great question. I'm glad you asked And honestly, it might be easier to address it by saying who's not eligible. And I think it'll give a little bit better contact. So criminal defendants that are not eligible for diversion here in Missoula County would be folks charged with sex offenses, serious crimes of violence like aggravated assault or assault with a weapon, those types of serious crimes where you may have a victim who has incurred some some significant physical or emotional harm. Additionally, people with lengthy criminal histories, maybe they've been to prison, those individuals are not going to be eligible for the diversion program. So what that leaves us with is folks that are facing crimes like embezzlement or drug charges, criminal mischief, maybe a few misdemeanor assaults, but the more serious crimes are not folks that are that are really good candidates for diversion.

Dave Strohmaier: 4:42

What if I'm the victim of a crime, any of eligible for the program? But I say absolutely not, I want this person at least tried and I want to run this through the court system. I don't want to see this person in diversion. How would that look? How does that play out?

Ray Reiser: 4:59

The County attorney's office here in Missoula office. So we really want the buy-in of those victims and we're going to actually reach out to victims before we initiate the contact with the defendant to try and learn whether or not those victims would be on board with handling the case this way.

Josh Slotnick: 5:16

Got it. That's great. That's great, Ray. There's a lot of talk out there right now about crime rates. I have a couple of questions for you. But first, how does Calibrate reduce the crime rate?

Ray Reiser: 5:27

Well, so when an individual is faced with a a teachable moment that I like to use.

Dave Strohmaier: 5:36

I use that with my kids a lot.

Ray Reiser: 5:39

Yeah. So a teachable moment in the case of someone is really receptive to learn from maybe their mistake or figure out what it is that they are doing and figure out a way to do things differently. So by reducing the crime rate, we really need to address those underlying causes of what brought the individual to the attention of the criminal justice system. Additionally, I mentioned earlier, or we've talked a little bit about target population of the calibrate program is low and moderate risk individuals. All right. And I would suggest that the higher risk individuals would be better served by our probation parole officers, maybe our Department of Corrections system, and by alleviating the need to put so many people into the corrections system. If I can divert a certain number of folks away from that correction system, it allows our probation parole officers more time or more energy to focus on some of those higher risk individuals. There are studies out there that show that both groups, if you will, low risk, moderate risk, high risk, they all respond better by not being grouped together and handled together, if you will.

Josh Slotnick: 6:48

So Calibrate allows us to separate the high get the high risk folks the attention they need. So they either end up in jail or figure out that they shouldn't be doing these things.

Ray Reiser: 7:00

I think that's a good way to put it. Yes.

Juanita Vero: 7:03

The financial piece of this and I don't mean night in jail is $120, or a day in jail is$120. So tell us more about the savings or maybe that's the wrong term, but the money not spent.

Ray Reiser: 7:17

Yeah, the money not spent. That's exactly right. And and if we have someone that's diverted out of the court system, we're not spending court dollars on handling their cases. We're not spending more and more dollars on their eventual incarceration. And certainly, if they're not going to prison, that's a that is a monetary benefit. And if we can make the right decisions early on in the process about who is low risk, who is moderate risk, who is high risk, these types of things, and divert some folks out, we can really, really make an impact there and save some money. So don't not spend some money, if you will.

Josh Slotnick: 7:49

Do you think this is accurate: the Missoulian been amassed through Calibrate.

Ray Reiser: 7:56

I will add that that was as of January of And since that time we've had a lot more folks that have been enrolled in the Calibrate program, which has equated to additional money not spent.

Dave Strohmaier: 8:07

But just just the back of the napkin

Josh Slotnick: 8:12

At $120 a day.

Dave Strohmaier: 8:14

That's like what, over a million bucks.

Juanita Vero: 8:17

$1.4 million.

Josh Slotnick: 8:18

Not spent. So this diverting and kind of sorting people who are in the criminal justice system, doesn't that already happen in pretrial and probation? How is pretrial supervision somebody who's supervised before they go to trial? They're accused, but they haven't gone to trial yet, but they're in the system. How does that how is that different than calibrate and how's probation different from Calibrate?

Ray Reiser: 8:39

Sure. In Pretrial supervision those are the are charged with crimes. And and those individuals often will either take their case to trial or maybe plead guilty or maybe maybe be found not guilty. You asked about probation. Those are individuals that have already been sentenced. They're living out in the community. They have a probation officer that they are working with. With Calibrate, we're actually removing the defendant or the individual from the court system altogether. That's the really the big difference is we've taken them right out of the court system.

Josh Slotnick: 9:08

Right. Thanks.

Juanita Vero: 9:08

To continue with this, can you give us some might go through? Yeah, or maybe tell us a story. And I know everyone's situation is different, but are there particular success stories that stick out?

Ray Reiser: 9:21

Yeah. Well, maybe I could talk about the And what we're looking at is individuals that may be eligible for pretrial diversion, and those are going to come from either the prosecutor or the defense counsel. In some cases, law enforcement officers have given us referrals as well. As far as the defendants themselves, they really need to work with their attorney and try and find out if they're a good candidate for pretrial diversion. Once an individual is identified, they would come and meet with myself or my my coworker, Maria, and we would conduct an interview.

Juanita Vero: 9:49

So they have to be referred first. They can't be... you can't refer on your own.

Ray Reiser: 9:52

That is correct. It's not going to be a So they're coming from an official referral source or one of those individuals that I mentioned. So they'll meet with us. And what we're doing in that interview, that's where we're determining the risk level and we use an objective assessment system. It's called the Ohio Risk Assessment System. It's a widely used and validated system that both Maria and I have been extensively trained on, and that gives us that rating or risk level of either low, moderate or high risk that helps us determine whether or not we're going to offer up diversion and what diversion is going to look like for each individual. It's going to be different for each individual, and that's important. It should be individualized.

Juanita Vero: 10:29

Okay. Tell tell us the story.

Josh Slotnick: 10:31

Any good ones stuck in your mind? Success stories.

Ray Reiser: 10:33

I do have a success story, and I'm glad you There was an individual some time ago. He was a general contractor business owner here in town, got himself into a little bit of trouble and was referred to pretrial diversion. Part of his diversion plan was to conduct some community service hours. I had assigned him 20 hours. He had to do 20 hours of work out in the community. And so the community service program here with Missoula Correctional Services, they had sent him to Habitat for Humanity. And I mentioned he's a contractor, so he knows his way around. He knows which end of a hammer to use and things like this. He did a great job, honestly, He did a great job. I got such good feedback from the folks that Habitat for Humanity and I said he had 20 hours to do. He worked two eight hour days. Then he came back for that third day work. The first 4 hours. Well, he didn't leave. He went and he finished out his his full day that shift. And at last report, he said that he was going to continue to volunteer some time for Habitat for Humanity when when available. So it's really a neat story. It sort of comes around full circle. He was, in fact, successful, was able to have his charge dismissed and really gave back to the community. So it was it was a good thing.

Josh Slotnick: 11:37

And he stayed out of trouble since.

Ray Reiser: 11:39

He has.

Juanita Vero: 11:40

And continues to to serve and volunteer with That's wonderful. How many folks have gone through this program?

Ray Reiser: 11:46

I've actually enrolled 106 so far.

Juanita Vero: 11:48

Since its inception, or...?

Ray Reiser: 11:50

Since its inception.

Josh Slotnick: 11:51

And how many graduated?

Ray Reiser: 11:52

I'm running about 85 to 90% of the

Juanita Vero: 11:57

That's great. Wow. Right. That's incredible.

Josh Slotnick: 11:59

That's so great.

Dave Strohmaier: 12:00

Fantastic.

Ray Reiser: 12:01

So it has been it's been really rewarding. It's been a positive experience. And frankly, it's good for the community. It's been a very good program all around.

Dave Strohmaier: 12:07

Ray, have we missed anything?

Ray Reiser: 12:09

I would like to mention something I often get What does success look like?" And you asked me how many people have enrolled and we want to know numbers and things like this. Well, I'm not the greatest number person, but we've initiated work with the University[of Montana] sociology department. Our goal here, we're going to have a study, a complex study of everything that's happened with the Calibrate program to really help determine what what does success mean, what does it look like. And frankly, there's going to be some things that'll come out of this study that I'm sure aren't going to be perfectly glowing. But we can take that information and make the improvements that we need.

Juanita Vero: 12:38

Interesting. And thinking about success, defendant, but if someone goes to jail, that is incredibly disruptive, not just with that person's life, but their job, their family, their associates. It can have a pretty big impact on the rest of the community in ways that I know I didn't really think about until.

Ray Reiser: 12:57

There's sort of a there's really a domino And I don't want to be the one that advocates for shutting down the jail because it's not where I'm coming from here. I do in fact believe that there are folks that are charged with crimes that do in fact need to be incarcerated for the safety of the community. I think most people can agree on that.

Juanita Vero: 13:12

Yep, absolutely.

Ray Reiser: 13:13

You talk about collateral consequences is the And the collateral consequences of both incarceration can affect a person's family, their employment situation and things like this. Well, take that a step further. The collateral consequences of a criminal conviction can also have those deleterious effects on an individual and their family and their employment status. And so, you know, with looking at certain individuals, finding the right combination of factors and the right people that are the right candidates or diversion, we can limit some of that.

Josh Slotnick: 13:43

Great. So one thing I just want to let folks could be funded by the crisis services levy, which is on the ballot this November. And if you are interested in learning more about any of that, you can find out more at missoulacountyvoice.com.

Juanita Vero: 13:58

So before we close, can you share with us a should look into?

Ray Reiser: 14:06

I listen to a lot of podcasts when I'm not

Dave Strohmaier: 14:12

That is the right answer.

Ray Reiser: 14:16

I listen to NPR a lot. I listen to a lot of podcasts, and there's another podcast that I that I like that I'm going to give a little plug for, if I could. It's called Stuff You Should Know. It's a couple of fellows talking about a wide range of topics. Everything from some of the recent ones that I listened to were one about the Pony Express, another one about Roe v Wade and another about the Appalachian Trail. There's so incredibly wide variety of topics and and I find it interesting. So that's my shameless plug for Stuff You Should Know.

Josh Slotnick: 14:42

Yeah, thanks for the tip.

Dave Strohmaier: 14:43

Yeah, that's a good one. Thanks, Ray.

Ray Reiser: 14:45

Thank you very much.

Josh Slotnick: 14:45

Thanks for coming by and thanks for the work

Juanita Vero: 14:48

Absolutely. Thank you. And thanks, everyone. We'll talk to you next week.

Josh Slotnick: 14:53

[outro music plays] Thanks for listening to If you enjoy these conversations, it would mean a lot if you would rate and review the show on whichever podcast app you like. And if you know a friend who would like to keep up with what's happening in local government, be sure to recommend this podcast to them. The Tip of the Spear podcast is made possible with support from MCAT, better known as Missoula Community Access Television and our staff in the Missoula County Communications Division. If you have a question or topic you'd like us to address on a future episode, email it to communications at Missoula County US and to find other ways to stay up to date with what's happening at Missoula County. Go to missoula.co/countyupdates. And thanks for listening.