Los Angeles County’s Rapid Diversion Program (RDP) is a pre-plea program that uses pretrial mental health diversion under Penal Code section 1001.36 as its legal basis, and it starts when your defense attorney refers you to an in-court clinician. A separate, narrower pathway, ODR Housing, is run by the Department of Health Services’ Office of Diversion and Reentry (ODR) for people held in county jail. In both, the judge makes the final decision. Which one might fit depends on your charge, your custody status, and whether you have stable housing.
The Rapid Diversion Program: how a referral actually moves
RDP is run by the county’s Justice, Care and Opportunities Department (JCOD) after being piloted in 2019 by the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office. The department describes these steps (Justice, Care and Opportunities Department, Rapid Diversion Program):
- Your defense attorney looks for a history or signs of a mental health condition or substance use disorder, willingness to accept services, and a charge that qualifies for mental health diversion.
- Your attorney refers you to an in-court clinician, who evaluates you and reviews your documented mental health history.
- If the clinician finds you suitable, the clinician recommends treatment, and a navigator working with the clinician locates a program.
- Once you are connected to services, the clinician writes a short-form diversion report. If the prosecution approves it, the report goes to the court for a decision on diversion under section 1001.36.
- Once diverted, you are assigned a case manager who meets with you weekly and reports your progress to the clinical team and the court.
Prosecution approval is a step in RDP’s own process. The statute itself leaves the decision to the judge, who considers the positions of both the defense and the prosecution.
RDP adds its own screen to the statute’s: it takes both misdemeanor and felony charges but excludes DUI, firearms, and serious violent or sexual offenses. The program runs 6 months to 2 years depending on the charge and your needs, within the statute’s limits of one year for a misdemeanor and two years for a felony, and cases are dismissed for people who complete it.
A second pathway: ODR Housing
The Department of Health Services created ODR Housing in 2015 and offers it to people charged with felonies through a partnership with the Los Angeles County Superior Court (Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, ODR Housing). It serves a narrower group: people in county jail who are homeless and have a serious mental health disorder. The program works to resolve the case early and move the person from jail into ODR Housing with either a grant of diversion or a grant of probation, with jail in-reach before release, interim housing on release, an intensive case manager, and then permanent supportive housing.
Competency cases follow a different route
ODR also runs MIST and FIST, which divert people facing misdemeanor or felony charges who have been found incompetent to stand trial (Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, Office of Diversion and Reentry). Those programs start from a competency finding in the criminal case, not from an RDP referral. After a misdemeanor defendant is found incompetent, Penal Code section 1370.01 has the court hold a hearing on options that include diversion under section 1001.36. If competency has been raised in your family member’s case, ask the defense attorney which route the case is on.
What to check before you count on either pathway
Neither RDP nor ODR Housing is automatic. RDP runs through a clinician’s suitability finding, prosecution approval of the report, and the court’s decision. ODR Housing is limited to its target group and ends in a court grant of diversion or probation. Whether you have a qualifying disorder, a qualifying charge, and, for ODR Housing, a custody and housing status that fits are separate questions for your specific case. Timing matters too: section 1001.36 defines pretrial diversion as postponing prosecution between the filing of charges and adjudication, so the request belongs early in the case.
If you or a family member is facing a Los Angeles County charge and a mental health or substance use condition is part of the picture, ask your defense attorney early whether RDP, ODR Housing, or the statewide mental health diversion rules under section 1001.36 fit your situation. The Law Offices of David S. Chesley can review the charge and the record with you. Call (800) 755-5174.