Prison Diversion Programs: Compelling Social Investments for Foundations

As a relatively small, regional niche foundation, Staunton Farm Foundation reasoned that “improving behavioral health” was too broad an area for us to make a significant impact. Hence, the foundation chose to focus on criminal justice. One reason for doing so was the glaring fact that the majority of people in our region’s (southwestern Pennsylvania) county jails have a behavioral illness or illnesses. Our county jails are the largest provider of inpatient behavioral health services, more so than our psychiatric facilities. We wanted to improve the behavioral health outcomes of those who are incarcerated and to divert them into appropriate treatment before they became involved in the criminal justice system. This strategy made sense from a public safety perspective (fewer criminals, less crime), as well as from an economic perspective (treatment costs are less than the cost of incarceration, and diversion services reduce recidivism).