Some say Kansas City is on the come-up, but the truth is we’re at a tipping point. While we step onto the world’s stage with multiple Super Bowls and the upcoming 2026 World Cup, community concerns over violence grow, and resources like affordable housing and mental health care remain severely limited.
For everyday Kansas Citians, one thing is clear: the people of Kansas City deserve more. Things like new sports stadiums and jails are not viable solutions for improving the lives of Kansas Citians. We deserve care. We deserve investment.
This week, Decarcerate KC is launching a vision for REACH KC, a Pre-Arrest Diversion and alternative community response program that would divert people away from arrest and into resources, care, and long-term support. If this program is adopted and fully funded by City Council, it will be the first of its kind in KC, and mark a leap toward ending our city’s reliance on policing and incarceration.
By reducing the reliance on these systems and making resources more readily available to those who need them, REACH KC would improve the quality of life for all Kansas Citians.
What is Pre-Arrest Diversion?
Pre-Arrest Diversion is a strategy that diverts people away from police and jails before first contact with the system. In cities like Atlanta and Denver, alternative community response teams are dispatched to calls involving quality of life concerns, including mental health and extreme poverty, where the police would typically respond.
By sending an unarmed, non-arresting community response team, people who might ordinarily get picked up for things like trespassing or public disturbance instead get linked to care. These programs have shown to have a measurable impact on incarceration rates.
For example, in 2023 Atlanta’s Policing Alternatives & Diversion (PAD) program diverted 129 individuals pre-arrest, allowing them to avoid jail time and receive services that meet their needs.
How Did We Get Here?
In early 2023, Decarcerate KC stopped $6 million from going to design costs for a new municipal jail—a city jail that would be in addition to the Jackson County Jail already under construction on 40 HWY. We wanted to see the city make a plan for resources that go beyond the city’s current reliance on the courts and incarceration. As the year progressed, we pursued transformative Alternatives to Incarceration.
As part of our campaign to reshape the conversation around incarceration in Kansas City, we fought for and won Kansas City’s first Alternatives to Incarceration Commission. Earlier this year, this commission recommended a Pre-Arrest Diversion program that would include alternative response teams as a way to invest in people–diverting them into resources instead of funneling them into jails.
What is REACH?
REACH (Responding with Empathetic Alternatives and Community Health) would be Kansas City’s first Pre-Arrest Diversion program–fully backed and funded by the City of Kansas City.
This program would be overseen by Kansas City’s Health Department, amplifying the reality that incarceration is a public health issue. By partnering with the Health Department, REACH would intercept individuals from contact with the police and courts.
Arrest data shows that the majority of municipal bookings in Kansas City involve low-level and non violent incidents like trespassing, disorderly conduct, and drug-related charges. Research from Prison Policy Initiative shows that unmet needs related to housing, healthcare, and substance use are often connected to the kind of low-level, nonviolent incidents that ordinarily land individuals in municipal jail.
In Kansas City, 70% of the jail population is Black, and over 80% have mental health needs. As an alternative to policing, REACH will provide real solutions by connecting people to the care and necessities they deserve without the trauma and violence of incarceration.
The more money we throw at jails and policing, the further we get away from providing Kansas Citians with what they actually need not just to get by, but to grow and thrive. Pre-Arrest Diversion and community response programs like REACH are an investment in individual people and communities.
How Will it Work?
The vision for REACH involves three key components.
1) Community Response
The community response arm of REACH dispatches trained community responders–members of the community themselves–to calls involving but not limited to mental health, substance abuse, houselessness, extreme poverty, and other quality of life concerns. These calls would be routed through KC’s 311 line, and community responders would arrive as an alternative to police response.
2) Short-Term Care Navigation
After making initial contact, community responders seek opportunities for immediate care, which might range from support for basic needs like food and shelter to safe transportation. If appropriate and consensual, community responders transport the individual back to the REACH Diversion Office, where they can meet with a REACH Care Navigator.
3) Long-Term Care Navigation
The Care Navigator then works closely with the individual to assess needs and determine a consent-based care navigation plan that might involve long-term needs like mental health and substance use support, or permanent housing options. The Care Navigator links the individual to care through community partners that can provide services free of charge. No one pays for care through the REACH Diversion Office.
With these three components combined, Kansas City could see a drastic decrease in the number of individuals cycling in and out of its jails, accompanied by a rise in quality of life among those most likely to be overpoliced or incarcerated.
What Comes Next?
Decarcerate KC has been organizing for meaningful diversion approaches for over a year. Now, we’re taking the vision for REACH KC to City Hall. In the coming weeks, we will be introducing an ordinance with the support of allies on city council to establish this program within the Health Department of Kansas City.
Ready to get involved? Join Decarcerate KC and allies on March 2nd at City Hall (414 E 12th St) at 8 AM for a rally to launch our vision for REACH KC. After the rally, head inside to provide public testimony at the city’s budget hearing, demanding that city council develop and fully fund this program in 2024.
