Diversion in Action

Understanding Successful Diversion Strategies:

A Case Study from Vermont

Thursday, March 14, 2024 • 1:30pm EST

You’re invited to join the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution and Vera Institute of Justice on Thursday, March 14th at 1:30 PM ET for a virtual panel on innovative diversion strategies being implemented in Vermont. Our webinar features: 

  • Chittenden County, VT State’s Attorney Sarah Fair George; 

  • Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform Executive Director Tom Dalton; 

  • Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform Director of Client Services Jess Kirby; and

  • Moderator Rachel Marshall, IIP Executive Director

Diversion programs can serve as an “off-ramp” from the harmful effects of the traditional criminal justice process and can offer benefits to both individuals accused of crime as well as to the broader public. Diversion programs can take many forms, such as parental diversion, mental health programs, and restorative justice. 

This webinar will discuss the benefits and strategies for diversion by examining one case study of an innovative diversion program implemented in Vermont. Last summer, Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George and Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform (VCJR) pioneered Incentives for Success, an intensive 12-week incentive-based diversion program designed to assist people accused of repeated non-violent crimes who have significant substance use disorder. The program is the first of its kind in the country. With support from the Vera Institute of Justice  Motion for Justice program, it follows an evidence-based contingency management model which helps individuals overcome substance use disorder by paying them to engage in treatment. Incentives for Success offers participants an opportunity to have their criminal case made inactive for 12 weeks while they receive financial and technical support applying for housing and substance use rehabilitation. In only a few short months, the pilot program has had a great deal of success.

Learn more about this program as well as additional strategies for implementing diversion programs in other jurisdictions. We invite prosecutors and advocates alike to join this exciting webinar on the numerous pathways for prosecutors to improve public safety by prioritizing community-driven, equity-informed solutions to justice.

Sarah Fair George

Chittenden County, VT State’s Attorney

State’s Attorney Sarah F. George is the Chittenden County State’s Attorney in Burlington, Vermont. Sarah is the second woman in Vermont history to serve in this role. She has been a prosecutor in Chittenden County since January 2011 and sworn in as the elected State’s Attorney on January 20th, 2017. Since being Chittenden County State’s Attorney, she has focused her efforts on overhauling the criminal legal system.  She uses her incredible prosecutorial discretion to implement evidence based practices and policies that work to keep her community safe.  Sarah is dedicated to providing opportunity, intervention and holistic support to survivors, families and offenders; holding individuals accountable and implementing smart-on-crime policies that promote safe, healthy, and strong communities.

Tom Dalton

Executive Director, Vermonters for Criminal Justice

Tom Dalton is the Executive Director of Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform. Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform is an educational and advocacy non-profit aimed at developing a more coordinated criminal justice system that values the humanity of all people, restores relationships, and uses incarceration as a last resort for public safety.

Jess Kirby

Director of Client Services, Vermonters for Criminal Justice

ess Kirby is the Director of Client Services at Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform, where she does direct services with justice-involved people with substance use disorders.  She works to raise awareness of criminal justice issues in Vermont--especially the impact of mass incarceration--and better alternatives for reducing crime. She speaks to groups around the state, organizes educational events, and uses social and traditional media to get the word out. Jess also works with policy makers and community leaders to change policies and statutes.

Rachel Marshall

Executive Director, Institute for Innovation in Prosecution

Associate Director at the Reshaping Prosecution Initiative, Vera Institute of Justice

Meghan Nayak

Meghan Nayak is the Associate Director of Programming with Vera’s Reshaping Prosecution initiative, working with prosecutors across the country to end mass incarceration, address racial disparities, and make their offices more accountable. She serves as staff lead for the Motion for Justice project, which provides technical assistance to prosecutors and community partners seeking to center racial equity in prosecutors’ work.

Rachel Marshall is the Executive Director of the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution at John Jay College, where she leads the IIP’s efforts to promote and support prosecutorial reform. Rachel works closely with local prosecutors to support their efforts to implement effective, community-centered approaches; develops and leads national convenings on key justice reform issues; and represents the IIP to the media as an expert on criminal justice.

Rachel previously served as the Director of Communications and Policy Advisor at the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office under District Attorney Chesa Boudin. Rachel consulted and advised on all policy and strategic decisions before the office, developed messaging strategies, coordinated high-stakes communications, and played a key role in implementing the office’s ambitious agenda.

Before joining the District Attorney’s Office, Rachel spent nearly a decade working as a public defender in Oakland, CA, where she represented clients at all stages in felony, misdemeanor, and juvenile cases.

Rachel graduated from Stanford Law School and Brown University. After law school, she clerked for federal District Court Judge David O. Carter in the Central District of California. Prior to law school, she taught high school history for three years in the Bronx.