Our mission is to facilitate, within various communities, positive and effective alternatives to fines, criminal prosecution, and detention.

The San Francisco Pretrial Diversion Project (SFPDP) was established in 1976 through the joint efforts of a group of socially conscious citizens, the San Francisco Bar Association and the Judges of the Municipal Courts. Their experiences demonstrated that most individuals charged with a misdemeanor offense did not benefit perceptibly by jail time. They were convinced that both the goals of crime prevention and rehabilitation would be better served by an alternative program of rehabilitation, education, and community service work. SFPDP was formed to provide first-time misdemeanor offenders of non-violent charges with the opportunity to have their case dismissed by completing a program.  Continuing our tradition and philosophy of “Dignity, Respect, Compassion and Accountability,” throughout the years SFPDP has added more programs designed to address the various needs of the Court, the Clients and the Community. Our programs include Court Accountable Case Management, Court Accountable Homeless Services, Community Involvement Team Yes!, The Navigator Project, Neighborhood Courts, No Violence Alliance, Own Recognizance, Pretrial Diversion, Project 20 / Project 22, & Supervised Pretrial Release.

We also participate in a successful Neighborhood Clean Up project by the City team. For more information, please visit our  Community Events page.

Site Navigation
Use the links at the top of this page to learn more about our work and the many ways that you can help the San Francisco community.

Questions?
Check out our Project 20 and Project 22 Frequently Asked Questions pages and the program eligibility criteria, or visit the Contact Us page for more information.