The STRIDE Program: Office of the DeKalb County District Attorney (DeKalb County, Georgia)

“Don’t let fear deter you from trying new things. We take a leap of faith that the people we extend invitations to will be able to make that change, and recognize it won’t always happen. But our success stories are important to the work we’re doing, and our stumbling blocks are lessons learned.”

–District Attorney Sherry Boston

The Stopping Trends of Repeat Incarceration with Diversion and Education (STRIDE) program in the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office is a comprehensive diversion program that leverages local community resources to create accountability for young adults charged with serious offenses and help them develop life skills and strengthen their connections to the community.

This case study, which is part of the Mapping Prosecutor-Led Diversion Project, centers on the program’s community-based, case management–focused model designed for young adults, highlighting takeaways for other prosecutors and stakeholders looking to launch similar programs. The information included is based on the office’s submitted response to the Mapping Prosecutor-Led Diversion Project survey and interviews with program leadership and staff. This case study is intended as an overview of this diversion strategy and is not an assessment or evaluation.

The STRIDE Program

Launched in 2020, STRIDE is a diversion program for youth ages 17 to 24 who have been arrested for serious felony offenses and have a history of involvement in the juvenile court system. The program is intended for young people charged with more serious felony offenses for the first time, including crimes involving victims, though it excludes charges related to intimate partner violence, sex offenses, and violence with a serious injury. Designed with young adults’ unique developmental needs in mind, STRIDE aims to provide more intensive, guided support than the District Attorney’s Office’s self-guided Pretrial Diversion Program. Its goal is to steer young people away from reoffending as they enter adulthood by strengthening their connections to school, work opportunities, and community resources.

Youth are typically referred to the program before their cases are filed. They can be referred to the Pretrial Diversion Program by the office’s preindictment unit, victim advocates, investigators, paralegals, or defense attorneys; anyone who comes in contact with a case can refer it to STRIDE. An attorney in the Pretrial Diversion Program then reviews a case’s eligibility based on the person’s age, charges, and past involvement in the juvenile justice system. Attorneys in the office note that the guidance is to err on the side of making a referral and to let diversion staff decide whether a case is eligible, and they can even advocate that terminations from the program be reversed if the circumstances warrant it. Even so, the District Attorney’s Office estimates that only about 10 percent of all cases are diverted; about 2 percent are referred to STRIDE.

Before offering diversion, the District Attorney’s Office notifies people who have been victimized of its intent to offer the STRIDE program to the responsible party in their case. This gives them the opportunity to ask questions, express their feelings about the case, and share their wishes for the diversion terms. This often includes requesting restitution or delivering a written statement to the responsible party. In these conversations, program staff explain what the STRIDE program will entail and what will likely happen if the case goes to trial. Staff noted that people who have been victimized nearly always agree that the District Attorney’s Office should proceed with the diversion. Often, survivors are willing to give young people a second chance and understand that providing them services may help prevent them from reoffending. Many also recognize that diverting a case resolves it more quickly and alleviates the burden of going to court and tracking the case over time.

Candidates eligible for diversion are invited to attend an information session before they agree to participate. Their attorneys are invited to attend, and an attorney from the Public Defender’s Office is present to offer assistance to those who cannot afford an attorney. During the session, candidates learn about the program’s requirements, meet the community service providers they will be working with, and are told that their case will be dismissed upon successful completion of the program. If candidates agree to join STRIDE, program staff then meet with their attorneys to execute diversion agreements. As of 2022, the program is only in its second cohort, and cohorts are limited to 20 participants because of resource limitations.

Upon admission to the program, participants receive a risk and needs assessment (a modified version of the LSI-R) to determine their current educational and vocational statuses and health needs. This informs their individual diversion plans and helps identify service providers that can meet their needs.

The program is designed to last 14 months, but youth have up to 18 months to complete programming. Those who successfully complete the program will not be charged or will have their charges dismissed. If participants aren’t successful, their cases are referred back to the District Attorney’s Office for prosecution.

A Multifaceted Program Model for Young Adults

In designing STRIDE, program leadership began by reviewing research on evidence-based diversion programming. They developed a comprehensive suite of program activities that address multiple areas of a young person’s successful development and transition to adulthood. At its core, the program is centered on cognitive behavioral therapy, which has been shown to improve outcomes for youth at high risk of reoffending. Although STRIDE is tailored to address the needs of each participant, it consists of these core components:

• Counseling. Participants are connected to community-based behavioral intervention programs, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, antirecidivism counseling, and mental health counseling.
• Education and work. Depending on their goals, participants are linked to workforce readiness supports such as postsecondary education, technical training, or local job placement.
• Service and civic education. Participants can choose among various community service and civic engagement activities aimed at enhancing their connections to their communities, such as contributing to group service projects, observing local government meetings, and attending a “know your rights” panel.
• Accountability. Participants must work toward making amends with the people they have harmed and repairing that harm. This may include restitution for damaged property or medical bills, apology letters, or restorative justice circles. Although STRIDE does not yet include a formal restorative justice component, staff are working on incorporating this into the model.
• Motivation. Through partnerships with local organizations, STRIDE provides mentorship opportunities and hosts inspirational speakers, such as people returning to the community after incarceration.
• Literacy and reading. Participants must choose a book to read and present on it to their peers in the program. All participants in the first cohort chose the same book, so STRIDE staff held weekly reading sessions for the group to discuss.

The program is delivered in a classroom setting and through an online learning platform managed by Rehabilitation Enables Dreams, an antirecidivism nonprofit organization. The curriculum focuses on participants’ roles as emerging adults in their communities and aims to help them build life skills centered on financial literacy, civics education, and health. Participants work directly with diversion staff in the District Attorney’s Office during the classroom programming and are referred to external organizations for counseling.

Though it is too early to gauge the success of STRIDE’s first cohort, staff eventually plan to measure the program’s success with metrics that reflect each of its focus areas, including improvements in participants’ education, employment, stability and health, family and community relationships, engagement in positive community activities, and the amends participants make with people they’ve harmed and their communities.

Building a New Diversion Approach

STRIDE is designed and overseen by staff in the Pretrial Diversion Program of the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office. Staff manage certain aspects of the program in house, like arranging motivational speakers and community service opportunities. The office also employs a case manager who monitors participants’ reporting requirements. However, local community service providers deliver the bulk of STRIDE’s direct services. To ensure eligibility for the services provided through these local partners, all STRIDE participants must be residents of DeKalb County.

Program leadership say their goal in designing the program was to make participants feel like they were joining a leadership program or civic organization, offering opportunities to develop their abilities and give back to their communities. STRIDE leadership have cultivated relationships with the following social services and nonprofit agencies with expertise in the program’s many components:

• American Alternative Court Services administers Thinking for a Change classes and offers counseling for participants with a mental health diagnosis or substance use disorder.
• The DeKalb Community Service Board provides referrals to drug and mental health treatment for participants who need it.
• Hands On Atlanta identifies group community service projects for STRIDE participants.
• Rehabilitation Enables Dreams is an antirecidivism nonprofit organization that offers motivational programming and mentorship opportunities.
• WorkSource DeKalb helps participants create an educational or vocational plan and provides the tools they need to succeed, like transportation and work-appropriate clothing.

Although STRIDE is housed in the District Attorney’s Office, leadership have tried to make the program feel removed from the traditional legal system. Staff noted that the role they play is similar to a judge, but they don’t want the program to feel like court. When they meet with participants, they invite them to an office, rather than the courthouse. To reinforce the line between the program and prosecutors, STRIDE staff and providers sign confidentiality agreements so participants know the information they share during programming or counseling will not be used against them in court. Program staff don’t have access to the information shared during counseling sessions. To minimize the feeling that participants are reporting to a probation officer, the program provides software (Pokket) that allows participants to track their own progress and places the onus on them to communicate with program staff for help as needed. Through the software, youth manage their schedules, seek referrals for community services, and communicate with their case managers. The program also alerts case managers if participants are falling behind on program requirements so they can follow up to provide support.

STRIDE leadership hope participants’ experiences will bolster their sense of procedural justice. Rather than inflicting punishment, STRIDE staff aim to set participants up for success and demonstrate that they care about the young people who reach their office. Program staff said they hope to provide resources to participants even after they graduate from the program.

The following lessons learned were informed by observations from District Attorney’s Office leadership, staff, and partners:

• Programs should think big but start small. While many prosecutor’s offices mainly divert misdemeanor cases, the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office exclusively handles felonies, so its goal from the outset was to build a program that would divert young people facing serious charges. Still, the office began by diverting the least serious felony cases as a way to demonstrate to the community that felony diversion was possible. It plans to build on this success by expanding the types of offenses that qualify for STRIDE.
• Strong community partnerships are an essential element of success and can be built on existing relationships. Program leaders emphasized the importance of engaging these partners early in the planning stages to establish the program’s goals and ensure it will meet the community’s specific needs. These partnerships also lend the program credibility with community members. Many of the District Attorney’s Office’s community partnerships began long before STRIDE; office leadership built on existing relationships with community organizations. Still, they noted that if an office doesn’t already have these relationships, it can build them by inviting input early in the development of the program. These community partners can also help share the program’s success with community members later on.
• Narrowly targeted programs like STRIDE may struggle with recruitment. STRIDE staff reported it has been challenging to recruit people into the program. Staff review hundreds of cases, and only 40 percent of people invited typically opt in to the program. Some people would prefer to exercise their rights in court; others opt for one of the other diversion programs offered. STRIDE’s narrow target audience may also be a limiting factor. It’s an intensive program that isn’t appropriate for petty offenses, which are instead referred to pretrial diversion (which involves community service, restitution, and counseling). Some young people who otherwise meet STRIDE’s criteria may not be a good fit for the program because they don’t require the types of services it provides.
• The COVID-19 pandemic has brought steep challenges but also opportunities for innovation. Staff attributed STRIDE’s low graduation rate among its first cohort—just 6 out of 20—to the fact that the program was held virtually and participants were unable to interact effectively with each other and program staff. Building on lessons learned from the first cohort, staff have worked to ensure STRIDE’s second cohort can access everything they need using a smartphone. Virtual programming carries some benefits: before the pandemic, a lack of access to transportation was a major barrier to participation in all diversion programming. The STRIDE team also looks forward to gradually expanding the size of future cohorts and possibly operating multiple cohorts simultaneously.
• Funding is a challenge, but partnering with externally funded community organizations can help fill the gaps. STRIDE is partially funded through the District Attorney’s Office, which pays for the program’s cognitive behavioral therapy component through forfeiture funding. Finding the funds was challenging, and staff had to advocate to get personnel for diversion programming. However, the office’s partnerships with county organizations mean many of STRIDE’s services are funded through other means. WorkSource, for example, receives funding from the US Department of Labor that requires it to provide workforce development services to a certain number of out-of-school youth, which makes its partnership with the District Attorney’s Office mutually beneficial. Still, STRIDE leaders noted that funding can be short lived and subject to the changing priorities of nonprofit funders. This year, STRIDE’s mentoring component had to be temporarily put on hold because the organization that provided it lost its funding. To anticipate issues like these, STRIDE staff emphasized the importance of building as many partnerships with community organizations as possible. This can also help prevent an office from having to charge program fees. At the outset of the pandemic, the District Attorney’s Office suspended all administrative fees associated with joining its diversion programs. Over time, it realized it wasn’t necessary to charge these fees and decided to permanently eliminate them.