Seattle’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) Program

Abstract

For repeat drug offenders, homelessness, unemployment, and lack of access to legitimate income and benefits are obstacles to community integration and quality-of-life improvement. Seattle’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) is a collaborative, prebooking diversion program that provides individuals suspected of low-level drug and prostitution offenses with legal assistance and harm reduction–oriented case management instead of prosecution and incarceration. We conducted this single-arm, within-subjects study to test changes in participants’ housing, employment, and income/benefits both prior and subsequent to their LEAD program referral. Findings indicated significant within-subjects improvements for LEAD participants ( N = 176) across all outcomes of interest. Moreover, achieving housing and employment was associated with 17% and 33% fewer arrests during the follow-up, respectively.