County attorney highlights GRACE, diversion programs; cites $5 million in restored‑care savings

Kristonna Watkins, the Cochise County alternative programs manager, told the Board of Supervisors that GRACE — the county’s program for defendants with serious mental illness — and an expanded diversion program have reduced the county’s restoration and prosecution costs while connecting participants to treatment and services.

Watkins said the county developed GRACE in response to large costs for Rule‑11 restoration and in‑patient competency restoration placements, previously described by law‑enforcement staff as running tens of thousands to over $100,000 per person for out‑of‑county placements. “How I define success in the GRACE program is that somebody, once they're done with GRACE, they don't come back to the court system for at least a year,” Watkins said.

Watkins explained that GRACE and the unit’s diversion work do not automatically remove serious violent offenders from prosecution; first‑degree murder cases and other serious matters still require restoration and court processes. But she said the county’s diversion work, including a revamped pre‑indictment drug‑diversion program run in‑house, reduces prosecutions for lower‑level offenders and frees prosecutors to handle more serious cases.

Program outcomes and funding described to supervisors: - Watkins estimated the county avoided roughly $5,000,000 in restoration costs by using GRACE instead of sending many defendants out‑of‑county for restoration (speaker: Kristonna Watkins). She described that figure as tied to the avoided cost of hospital and restoration placements rather than a comprehensive accounting of all related criminal‑justice costs. - Diversion fee revenue has increased since 2022: Watkins said the program collected a little more than $6,000 in 2022, approximately $64,000 in 2023, $217,000 last year, and $75,000 in the first quarter of the current year; she said the county projects about $300,000 in diversion fees by year end. Those fees, Watkins said, must legally be used for diversion programs and the office intends to use them to sustain coordinator positions now supported by a three‑year ACJC grant that ends next year. - The county’s drug‑diversion program is designed to be pre‑indictment and in‑house; Monica McCall, the drug‑diversion coordinator, had graduated about 20 participants and the program term typically lasts about a year to a year and a half (speaker: Kristonna Watkins).

Watkins told supervisors that diversion follows APAC (Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys’ Advisory Council) guidelines and that the office requires participants to pay a monthly fee — described as $70 per month in Cochise County — plus program conditions such as classes, testing and either community service or a donation to a local Cochise County nonprofit. The office said it applies a means test and may reduce the amount for participants who demonstrate financial need.

Why it matters: Watkins said diversion and GRACE reduce expensive out‑of‑county restores and incarceration costs, shorten processing time for low‑level cases, and allow prosecutors to focus resources on property, violent and public‑safety cases. Watkins also told the board that ADRS disposition accuracy and diverted case outcomes have downstream effects on criminal‑history records and background checks.

Ending: Watkins asked supervisors to consider the diversion program’s revenue projections and grant timing as part of the county’s budget planning so that coordinator positions and testing and support services can be sustained after the current ACJC grant expires.