The Walker Country District Attorney’s Office operates the Pretrial Diversion Program. Pretrial was established with the general intent to be a dismissal track to serve first-time, nonviolent offenders, who made an unfortunate decision and found themselves on the wrong side of the law.

Entry into Pretrial generally provides a dismissal pathway for the charged offense. In certain cases, the defendant may be required to plea to a lesser included offense. Entry into Pretrial is not a right, but a privilege. The District Attorney is vested with the exclusive discretionary decision-making authority to grant or deny entry into pretrial.

Applications for Pretrial are considered on a case-by-case basis. Many factors are considered in the decision-making process, including: the nature of the charged offense, input from the arresting agency as well as input from any crime-victim. The defendant’s criminal history is considered as well as any aggravating or mitigating factors. The Pretrial vetting process requires DUI and felony applicants to personally appear before a Citizen’s Advisory Committee, which serves as the consciousness of the community. The committee is viewed as providing meaningful recommendations for the District Attorney to consider in deciding whether to grant or deny diversion status. Only those who are eligible and committed to successfully completing the program will be accepted into pretrial.

The Pretrial Diversion Program was developed with the intent to assist first-time, nonviolent offenders avoid the devastating consequences of a criminal conviction by creating an alternative track to traditional prosecution. Pretrial coincides and Facilitates the District Attorney’s objective to reduce recidivism, through the delivery of a comprehensive program design model, which promotes individual accountability and achieves program integrity.

The cornerstone of our Pretrial program design model is based on a strong case management component, through monthly monitoring and supervision. Equally important to program success is providing random drug/alcohol screening, counseling, and meaningful educational-based classes, which are relevant to the charged offense and payment of crime-victim restitution (if applicable). The combination of these components are intended to produce long-term behavioral change by allowing participants to learn from the situation leading to the arrest and acquire a problem solving and situational skill set to avoid being charged in the future. The Pretrial design model offers the essential framework towards producing contributing members of our local community.