King County Prosecutor pauses youth felony diversion, citing high reoffending rates

Since 2021, the King County Prosecutor’s Office has referred youth accused of misdemeanors and those facing nonviolent felony charges to a coalition of nonprofits. But now prosecutors say recidivism rates for the felony participants appear to be unacceptably high, and they will “pause” felony referrals until they get more data.

King County has spent $16 million over the last four years to fund the work of Restorative Community Pathways in an effort to divert youth away from courts and detention. But as KUOW has reported, King County officials have been criticized for lax oversight of the programs and funding involved, and RCP has struggled with capacity issues .

Critics call the prosecutor’s decision to limit use of the program long overdue.

King County Prosecutor Leesa Manion notified county officials of the change in a July 17 letter, saying an analysis performed by Seattle University Economics Professor Claus Pörtner tracked 902 case referrals (676 misdemeanors and 226 felonies) for a maximum of 24 months. Within that time, youth referred to Restorative Community Pathways for misdemeanors had a reoffending rate of roughly 37%, while youth referred over felonies had a higher recidivism rate of 53%.

Manion said the analysis had serious limitations, such as a small sample size and lack of a control group. But still, she said, recidivism exceeding 50% bolstered her decision.

“There are some folks that may interpret that as a 50-50 shot of success, or maybe a ‘flip of a coin’ type of success,” she said. “That’s not actually how I read the data – but because of that, and because we have discretion, I made the decision to temporarily pause felony referrals” into Restorative Community Pathways, she told KUOW.

Manion said these programs could be providing other benefits that aren't reflected in the analysis.

“Recidivism is one data point, but it’s not the whole story," said Jasmine Vail, the communications and development coordinator at Restorative Community Pathways.

She and Manion both noted that the analysis only tracks participants for two years when three years is accepted best practice.

But at the same time, Vail said, “it’s our responsibility to understand what’s going on and why there’s a felony pause connected to recidivism rates, and adjust accordingly, because we want the best quality of service given to our youth, especially youth that are high risk, high needs.”

Vail also noted that state law mandates diversion for most juvenile misdemeanors, and those cases make up the vast majority of youth that her program serves. Participants are matched with one of six nonprofits to best meet their needs.

Felonies made up about a quarter of the cases in Pörtner's initial recidivism analysis. Manion said she hopes additional research will compare recidivism in other populations, not just Restorative Community Pathways, and evaluate which specific interventions work best. However, she said, Pörtner is donating his time to do this work and there’s no firm deadline for more results.

In the meantime, Manion said her “pause” doesn’t mean youth accused of these felonies must be charged and prosecuted.

“I value diversion and I think we have room in our criminal legal system for successful and effective diversion programs. I have other options,” she said.

Manion said her office will seek to refer these cases to more court-supervised diversion programs. But whether the court has capacity for those cases is unclear; some juvenile probation counselor positions were cut in recent years to help fund Restorative Community Pathways.

King County Superior Court Presiding Judge Ketu Shah said he expects about 60 additional diversion cases a year as a result of this change, added to the already excessive caseloads of the court’s juvenile probation counselors.

“This additional strain will be meaningful,” Shah said, because the counselors work to provide wraparound services for youth and their families. He said their budget request will include funding for these efforts.

“It takes time to rehire those folks back and rebuild that capacity,” King County Councilmember Rod Dembowski said.

He blamed the prosecutor’s office for what he called haphazard oversight of the cases they sent to Restorative Community Pathways.

“There’s been a failure across the board on this program with the outside groups, with the executive branch, and with the prosecutor’s office to do it right,” he said. “And so this step, in my view, is long overdue.”

King County officials largely backed Manion’s decision, while saying more data is needed.

King County Executive Shannon Braddock said the recidivism conclusions are limited by the study’s small sample size, but pausing felony referrals make sense for now.

“I certainly do not think it’s a backward step," Braddock said. "I think it is the reality of an evolving program, and that we will continue to do that work to make sure we are putting together the most effective program.”

Kelly Rider, director of the county’s Department of Community and Human Services, which oversees Restorative Community Pathways, said her agency is "looking forward to seeing the rest of the data." She underscored that the pause is meant to give the county a chance "to take in new information about how this program is working and how it fits with the rest of the system.”

A county-commissioned assessment and an audit of Restorative Community Pathways are both due in the next month.

King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay supported the creation of Restorative Community Pathways but said he agreed with the prosecutor’s pause on felony referrals.

“Possibly the people committing felonies are going through something more serious, so keeping them on the right track might generally be harder — I think that’s intuitive to me,” he said. “If over half the felony referrals are ending up [reoffending], then to me that means the program needs to be much better and much more accountable.”

Zahilay said he’s also concerned that people aren’t completing the program once they accept a referral to Restorative Community Pathways.

“I think there needs to be some kind of change to make sure completing the program is mandatory,” he added.

Councilmember Reagan Dunn said he supports redirecting existing funding for Restorative Community Pathways to more court-supervised diversion programs in which participants must talk to a judge and to a probation counselor.

“We know that system works,” he said. “As far as money to pay for it, the King County Council passed 8 to 1 — I voted against it — a new sales tax” of a tenth of a cent on July 22, intended to fund public safety services.

But Manion said there are tradeoffs in sending youth away from Restorative Community Pathways. She said the program's staff can be more flexible about contacting youth during evenings and weekends. They also provide services and restitution to the victims of crime.

Johnny Phet is a community navigator at Restorative Community Pathways, who makes contact with youth when they are first referred to the program.

“We pretty much work around the clock,” he said. “Our phones, our text messages, and engagement with the youth is nonstop, so the attention we can give to each individual is really impactful.”

Phet said he also hosts events like Friday night gatherings.

“We do a lot of pro-social activities where they are engaged, hands-on, and open their eyes to a bigger and better, brighter future.”

Vail, the Restorative Community Pathways spokesperson, said the program has undergone significant changes since it was launched.

“We are focusing on standardizing some onboarding processes for community navigators, more trainings, and a deeper dive into data analysis, as well as strengthening our community partnerships, mainly schools and neighboring tribes.”

KUOW's Ann Dornfeld contributed reporting for this story.

Update, July 24, 2025: This article has been updated to include a response from the King County Superior Court.