An Evaluation of the Winnebago County State’s Attorney’s Office Deferred Prosecution Program: 2025 Update

With support from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, the Center for Criminal Justice at Loyola University Chicago (Loyola) collaborated with the Winnebago County State’s Attorney’s Office (SAO) to conduct a mixed-methods evaluation of DIVERT, a deferred prosecution program that has been operated by the SAO since 2022. Loyola published an interim evaluation report in 2024, based on information gathered through interviews with a range of DIVERT stakeholders as well as program data from DIVERT’s first 28 months. The current report updates the picture of DIVERT to include an additional 17 months of program data, and covers all individuals participating in DIVERT since the program was launched in March 2022, through December 9, 2025 (45 months).

For further background on DIVERT and a detailed summary of program eligibility, procedures, and requirements, see the 2024 Interim Report. Briefly, DIVERT is broadly intended for first-time, nonviolent offenders, and is designed as an alternative way to hold them accountable without formal prosecution. To be enrolled in DIVERT, defendants must admit to the factual allegations of the underlying charges while agreeing to complete program requirements and remain crime-free over the program period. In return, the SAO agrees to hold and eventually dismiss criminal charges upon completion of the program. In addition to avoiding criminal convictions, successful DIVERT participants may apply immediately to expunge case records, and the SAO agrees not to object to expungement.

Participant Referral and Enrollment

Criminal cases referred to the Winnebago SAO are routinely screened by a DIVERT Program Coordinator, who flags those that meet program eligibility requirements, based on current charges and the absence of criminal history. The ultimate decision to offer the DIVERT program, however, is made by the Assistant State’s Attorney (ASA) assigned to the case. Accordingly, defendants who are identified as eligible may not receive DIVERT offers, and conversely ASAs have some discretion to offer DIVERT to “ineligible” defendants—i.e. those initially screened out because of the seriousness of their current charges or their prior criminal histories.

Over time, undoubtedly due to ongoing efforts by the Program Coordinator and others to familiarize stakeholders the program, DIVERT has become more widely known and accepted among local practitioners, including ASAs, judges, and defense attorneys. Since DIVERT was created, at least 45 different ASAs have recommended DIVERT for defendants, and 17 ASAs have had 12 or more defendants enrolled in DIVERT (twice as many as during the program’s first two years). Similarly, roughly 100 different assistant public defenders or private attorneys have had clients enrolled in DIVERT.

From its launch through December 9, 2025, DIVERT has enrolled a total 707 participants. Forty percent (280) of these participants came to the program after being flagged as eligible by the Program Coordinator. The remaining 427 cases—60% of the total enrolled—came to DIVERT through referral by assigned ASAs, without having been initially identified as eligible in the screening process.

Overall, the Program Coordinator screened a total of 7,277 criminal cases, flagging 1,077 (15%) as eligible. (Most of those rejected failed to meet the “first-time offender” requirement: about 86% had prior criminal convictions.) However, out of these 1,077 cases flagged as eligible, only 280 (26%) were enrolled in the DIVERT program

Of the 722 misdemeanor cases identified as eligible, 143 (20%) were enrolled.
Of the 315 felony cases flagged as eligible, 137 (43%) were enrolled.

We investigated what happened to cases that were flagged as eligible for DIVERT but not enrolled. When we looked at all the eligible but not enrolled misdemeanor cases with a final disposition (509 cases), we found that 70% had been dismissed outright.

For felony cases identified as eligible in the screening process but not enrolled, however, the alternative was unlikely to be dismissal: of the 149 felony cases that were flagged but not enrolled and had final dispositions at the time of our study, only 21% had ended in dismissal.

Participant Demographic Profile

Across the life of the program, DIVERT participants had an average age of 33 years old. They were 54% male and 46% female, a distribution that remained consistent throughout the period examined. In terms of race, 47% of participants were white, 35% Black, 16% Hispanic, and 2% were Asian/Other. While enrollment by race varied over time, there was no clear trend.

There were some racial/ethnic differences between the eligible/enrolled and eligible/not-enrolled groups: roughly 38% of all Hispanics flagged as eligible were enrolled in the program, far more than the enrolled proportion of eligible whites (24%) and eligible blacks (25%).

Most DIVERT participants (54% overall) were represented by the Office of the Winnebago County Public Defender, which serves indigent clients. The Public Defender share of the DIVERT caseload has been growing: 47% of DIVERT participants in 2022 and 2023 were Public Defender clients, increasing to 56% in 2024 and 60% in 2025.

Charge Profile

Of all the cases enrolled in the DIVERT program, 56% involved felony-level charges (usually Class 4, the least serious of the felony classes), and 44% involved misdemeanors (usually Class A, the most serious of the misdemeanor classes).

Offenses charged against DIVERT participants included:

31% property crimes
23% assault or battery
20% drug-law violations
11% weapons possession
16% other offenses (e.g., disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, driving on a suspended license, etc.)

Both the crime types and the levels of offenses charged against DIVERT participants have changed somewhat over the life of the program. For example, drug offenses made up about one-quarter of enrolled cases through 2024, but in 2025 made up less than 15% of the total. At the same time, the share of enrollments involving assaults and batteries, just 20% in the first three years, accounted for 27% of the 2025 cases.

Likewise, during the first two-plus years of DIVERT, 72% of the cases enrolled in the program involved felony-level charges, and only 28% involved misdemeanors. But after that, the misdemeanor share of DIVERT program enrollment surged: beginning in the fourth quarter of 2024 and continuing through most of 2025, the majority of DIVERT enrollments involved misdemeanor cases. Much of this growth in the misdemeanor share of DIVERT cases originated from the docket of a specific judge hearing misdemeanor cases.

Risk Profile

Since February 2023, the Program Coordinator has been using information collected in the intake interview with DIVERT participants to fill out the Ohio Risk Assessment System Community Supervision Tool (ORAS-CST), completing a total of 201 ORAS-CSTs through May 2025. Nearly all participants were classified as low risk. Overall, 95.5% of assessed DIVERT participants were classified as low risk and 4.5% as moderate risk.

Even among cases not originally flagged as eligible for DIVERT, but admitted to the program upon the referral of the assigned ASA, 94% were classified as low risk.

Program Requirements

All DIVERT participants were required to comply with a set of individualized program conditions. Of all the participants enrolled in DIVERT, most (61%) were required to complete life skills training, usually through online “Accepting Responsibility is Mandatory” classes. Most were also required to work a specified number of hours (generally between 20 and 40) of community service (56%), pay restitution to victims (14%), or write apology letters (8%). One-third of all cases were referred to the program’s contracted clinical case management provider, Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities (TASC), which conducted behavioral assessments and made referrals to services and treatment in accordance with these assessments. Of those assessed by TASC, 73% were referred for substance abuse treatment.

Life Skills Training

Of those ordered to a life skills class, most (99.5%) had to complete one specific class, the most common being Theft Awareness Prevention (29% of those given life skills training requirements), followed by anger management (23.7%), personal responsibility (12.5%), and firearm safety training (10.2%).

Community Service and Restitution

Overall, 56% of DIVERT participants were required to do community service, working a specified number of hours at a community service site approved by the Program Coordinator. The average requirement was 37 hours, with 72% of participants being required to complete between 30 and 50 hours. In all, DIVERT participants have completed over 10,208 service hours. At a rate of $15 an hour (the state minimum wage), the value of that community service totals$ 153,120.

Fourteen percent of participants were required to pay restitution (program completers paid a combined total of $106,684 in restitution), and 13% were required to write a letter of apology.

Changing Program Requirements

As the DIVERT program evolved, and as some of the characteristics of enrolled participants changed, so too did program requirements. For example, over time, the proportion of DIVERT participants ordered to complete community service has decreased substantially. Among those enrolled in 2022 and 2023, more than two-thirds (70%) were ordered to complete community service, with a median of 40 hours required. Among those enrolled in 2024 and 2025, however, only 48% were ordered to perform community service and the median hours required fell to 30. Likewise, since the start of the program there has been a decline in the proportion of participants required to pay restitution (from 22% to 14%) and the proportion required to write a letter of apology (from 13% to 8%).

Conversely, life skills training requirements have become steadily more common. Only a third of DIVERT participants enrolled in 2022 and 2023 were required to complete an on-line life skills training course, compared to 75% among participants enrolled in 2025.

TASC’s role in the program has also changed, with referrals to TASC for behavioral health assessments diminishing over time. Just over one-half (55%) of all DIVERT participants were referred to TASC for behavioral assessments during 2022 and 2023. By 2025, that proportion had fallen to 21%, possibly reflecting the reduced share of DIVERT cases involving drug-law violations.

Program Completion

As of December 9, 2025, 553 DIVERT participants had completed the program successfully, and only 29 had been unsuccessful—a 95% success rate. (The remaining 125 were still enrolled on that date.) Their average time to completion was a little more than four months (125 days), but program completion times have been falling steadily: among those who completed the program in 2023, the average time in DIVERT was 175 days (5.8 months); among those competing in 2024, the average time was 4.3 months, and for those completing in 2025, the average time in DIVERT was 3.2 months.

While program expulsions (i.e., unsuccessful cases) were rare, they occurred an average of 241 days after admission, and were usually related to failure to complete program requirements, especially failure to cooperate in recommended treatment.

In general, successful program completers satisfied all or nearly all program requirements, with 241 out of 282 completing required community service, 252 out of 355 completing life skills training, 146 out of 160 completing substance abuse assessments, and 96 out of 107 completing recommended treatment.

Recidivism

An analysis of the court records of the 239 individuals who successfully completed the DIVERT program through June 2024

revealed that only 15% had new (non-traffic) criminal charges filed in the 18 months following completion. Within this group of program completers, 13% of those enrolled after being flagged as eligible by the Program Coordinator had new charges filed within 18 months, compared to 16% among those that entered DIVERT exclusively by an ASA referral. By comparison, among a random sample of 162 individuals who were DIVERT-eligible but not enrolled in the program, 23% had new charges filed in the 18 months after their cases were discharged.

Conclusion

After four years of operation, DIVERT has evolved from a pilot program to one that is now an integral part of the Winnebago County State’s Attorney’s Office. With modest resources (one full-time program coordinator), thousands of cases have been reviewed for eligibility and more than 700 participants have benefitted from the opportunity to avoid having a criminal conviction on their record while completing program requirements that impose a proportionate degree of accountability and provide access to rehabilitative services if needed, all without imposing overly burdensome time commitments on the defendant. During those four years, dozens of ASAs have referred cases to DIVERT and more than 100 public defenders or private attorneys have had clients enroll in the program. As we explained in our 2024 interim report, our evaluation suggests that the program is broadly accepted and valued among local stakeholders, is achieving generally positive case outcomes, and appears to have a positive impact on recidivism.