The National Association of Pretrial Services Agencies (NAPSA) has standards for pretrial diversion that should prove useful in developing compliance and termination policies for defendants with mental illness who are placed in diversion programs. ^[1]     Those standards state that diversion conditions should be clearly written in a service plan signed by the defendant and the diversion program representative.  "Knowing exactly what is expected will decrease the likelihood of a participant's being unsuccessful in treatment." ^[2]    The service plan should also detail what actions could be taken in response to the participant's failure to comply with the conditions.  The diversion program representative should explore any noncompliance with diversion conditions to determine whether the violation was willful, was a symptom of the mental illness, or was an indication of the need to change the treatment plan.  It must be recognized that decompensation and other setbacks are common occurrences for people under treatment for mental illness as the attending mental health clinician seeks the most appropriate treatment.

Defendants who are terminated for unsuccessfully completing the program should have their cases returned, without prejudice, to the regular court calendar.  Defendants should also be allowed to withdraw from diversion and have the prosecution of their cases resumed without prejudice.