Who is eligible for the Florida pretrial intervention program?
Answer: Usually this is available to first time offenders—people with no prior criminal history. Now this can vary a little bit county to county. Some of the bigger or what we call more liberal counties will let people go through the diversion program or an intervention program in certain circumstances, maybe if they have a little bit of a criminal history for some minor misdemeanors, let’s say.But as a general rule, it’s available for first time offenders, individuals with no prior criminal history, and in many instances, felonies for example, the diversion program or the intervention program—those terms are used interchangeably—that is run by the Florida Department of Corrections. The state probation department runs these intervention programs, but if you’re dealing with county intervention programs—if someone’s charged with a misdemeanor like marijuana—in most instances that is run by the probation department in the county in which the case is pending. So felonies supervised by the department of corrections on the statewide level, misdemeanors usually the diversion program is administered by a county probation department.