New York City offers another model - a program that tries to divert young offenders from detention to probation.

Drug courts, which divert nonviolent, first-time offenders to supervised treatment rather than jail, are effective, yet put additional strain on scarce resources.

In Miami, drug courts divert first offenders to treatment.

Though that is less mandatory prison time than in the old law, judges still could not divert offenders to treatment without a prosecutor's approval.

The critics said the budget cuts would undermine Mr. Pataki's own policy of trying to divert nonviolent, drug-addicted offenders into treatment programs instead of prison.

Diversion programs in these states aim to divert offenders into education, assessment and treatment programs.

We also know from research that treatment is more effective in diverting drug-addicted offenders from criminal life styles than imprisonment.

Established in 1978, it diverts first-time offenders from the correctional system into alternative treatment.

Screening and Treatment Another program diverts offenders with alcohol and drug abuse or mental-illness impairments into appropriate treatment.

And we are funding programs to divert nonviolent offenders from prison or jail to treatment and ancillary services.