New Interactive Report Shows How Alternatives to Incarceration Programs Change Lives
San Diego County has launched a new interactive report that shows how the County’s Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI) programs make a difference in what people experience before and after time in local jails. The web report, released Thursday, April 30, 2026, highlights the Alternatives to Incarceration programs through data and storytelling, using fictional characters based on interviews of actual people about their experiences. The stories and real data show how health, recovery and housing services can help.
An example is the story of “Eric” who grew up in a home marked by substance use, violence and instability. By his mid-20s, he’d been in and out of jail many times, and opioid use structured his day-to-day life.
But that wasn’t the end of the story. With the support of Alternatives to Incarceration programs, he’s now sober, working as a waiter and looking forward to his future. It wasn’t just one experience that changed everything for Eric. The Sheriff’s Office, Health and Human Services Agency, and Behavioral Health Services collaborated so that Eric got what he needed as part of jail and the justice system.
The web report features initial data from the County’s Alternatives to Incarceration initiative, launched in 2023. Under the initiative, County departments and community partners work together to make sure people who commit low-level crimes get the kind of help they need to keep them away from jail in the first place, or from ever returning to it. Otherwise, for many, jail can turn into an endless cycle of new crime, poor behavioral health, potential homelessness and poverty.
The County expects to update the information annually.