HB 05555 - Diversionary Programs

• Establishes a pretrial drug education and community service program for persons charged with drug violations (sections 21a-267, 21a-279) or a third violation of section 21a-279a, replacing previous eight and ten-session programs with a fifteen-week drug education program plus substance abuse treatment of at least fifteen sessions and community service.

• Increases application fees from one hundred dollars to one hundred fifty dollars and changes the program fee from three hundred fifty to five hundred dollars to a flat six hundred dollars; allocates eighty-five percent of program fees to the pretrial account and fifteen percent to the alternative incarceration program account.

• Limits participant eligibility to those who have not participated twice previously in the program or related community service programs, with court discretion to allow a third participation for good cause; requires increasing community service periods (five days for first entry, fifteen days for second, thirty days for third).

• Revises the community service labor program (section 53a-39c) to apply only to persons convicted of first violations of drug offenses who have not been previously convicted, and removes the pretrial suspension option while maintaining the post-conviction probation/conditional discharge option.

• Expands mediation program availability from designated geographical areas to each geographical area of the Superior Court effective October 1, 2012.