Seattle City Attorney Erika Evans launched a new therapeutic court this week aimed at diverting people accused of low-level misdemeanors away from prosecution and into services, pairing it with a tougher track targeting repeat offenders. Connection Court held its first session on Wednesday, offering eligible defendants 90 days of services instead of criminal charges, while a companion program called High-Priority Repeat Offenses, or HiPRO, will push for harsher sentences against people who cycle repeatedly through the legal system.
Connection Court serves people accused of low-level, nonviolent offenses such as theft and public drug use, according to PublicCola, which reported that the program connects defendants with services through the Community Resource Center as an alternative to prosecution. Participants who complete their assigned service engagements, which can include substance use treatment, job support, health benefits and peer support, will see their cases dismissed, as reported by The Stranger. As Seattle Times reporter Lauren Girgis detailed in a Seattle Times report on the launch, Connection Court also offers potential work pathways through the Downtown Seattle Association Ambassador Program, a second-chance employer whose ambassadors clean downtown streets and help tourists and locals.
Ninety Days of Clean Behavior, or Back to Traditional Court
To finish the program, participants must exhibit law-abiding behavior for a 90-day jurisdiction period during which they cannot break the law again, the Seattle Times reported. Anyone who fails that requirement will be screened out of Connection Court and sent to mainstream court, where they will face prosecution on the original misdemeanor charge along with any additional charges, according to the same report and corroborated by PublicCola's reporting on the program's structure.
Evans framed the approach as a balance between consequences and support. “Smart justice means holding people accountable who repeatedly break the law, and also helping those who are ready to be helped, while maintaining supervision and accountability as that process plays out,” she said, per the Seattle Times. Mayor Katie Wilson backed the launch as well, saying Connection Court will address people with complex needs through tailored approaches, according to the same reporting.
Who Gets Left Out
The eligibility rules carve out significant exclusions. Connection Court excludes driving-under-the-influence charges, gun-related misdemeanors and domestic-violence charges, along with cases considered part of a pattern of frequent criminal misconduct, the Seattle Times reported. People with serious felony records, including rape convictions at any time or second-degree assault within the last decade, are also excluded, while PublicCola reported more broadly that anyone with a serious felony conviction in the last 10 years is automatically ineligible. The program further excludes charges more appropriate for mental health court or cases involving someone already enrolled there, according to the Seattle Times.
King County public defenders have expressed concern about those restrictions. The King County Department of Public Defense criticized the 90-day requirement, and special counsel Katie Hurley told PublicCola that the eligibility rules will affect indigent people, disproportionately people of color and people experiencing homelessness. “There’s no connection to housing, which is what many people who are prosecuted for low-level behaviors struggle with,” Hurley said, per the same report. The department separately characterized Connection Court's eligibility criteria as more restrictive than those of the previous community court, according to the Stranger's reporting. Hurley also said Connection Court should be available to people in custody who cannot make bail, as reported by PublicCola.
A Tougher Track for Repeat Offenders
Alongside Connection Court, Evans announced the High-Priority Repeat Offenses initiative, targeting people who frequently cycle through the legal system. HiPRO targets people charged with three cases in a three-month span or six cases in a six-month span, according to the Seattle Times — though the Stranger separately described the threshold as three crimes in three months or six crimes in six months, and PublicCola described it as more than three times in 90 days or more than six times in six months. The program also targets people who return to businesses from which they were previously trespassed and are accused of stealing, along with crimes that impact businesses and vehicle prowls, the Stranger reported.
People flagged under HiPRO are presumed ineligible for Connection Court and other diversion programs, and prosecutors will request aggravated jail sentences for them, the Seattle Times reported. Evans said the initiative seeks firmer consequences for people who have taken advantage of Seattle's compassion, according to the same report. She has also halted enforcement of Seattle's stay-out laws, the Seattle Times noted.
Hurley told PublicCola that the Department of Public Defense was not informed about HiPRO until Monday, just days before its announcement. Evans herself acknowledged the program's limits, telling the Stranger that the current version of Connection Court “is not enough yet” and voicing hope that it would expand.
Seattle's Long Road With Diversion Courts
Connection Court is not Seattle's first attempt at this kind of diversion. Community Court launched in 2020 and required six hours of community service from participants, according to the Seattle Times. Then-City Attorney Ann Davison ended that program in 2023, three years after it launched, and later introduced a replacement in 2025, the Seattle Times reported.
That earlier program struggled with slow timelines and low completion rates. Community Court 3.0, launched in August 2020, aimed to resolve eligible misdemeanor cases within 60 days of arraignment, according to the Seattle Times's coverage of the program's demise, but cases instead took an average of 286 days to resolve. The city attorney's office found that only 22% of defendants completed the program's minimal graduation requirements, per KUOW. At the time it ended, Community Court had nearly 4,200 pending cases involving 2,500 people, having graduated close to 600 and resolved almost 900 cases since its launch, the Seattle Times reported. Davison's office also maintained a rotating list of about 150 people with at least 12 misdemeanor charges in the past year, according to PublicCola.
Connection Court's new jurisdiction period marks a notable departure from that earlier model. The Seattle Times reported that the previous iteration of Seattle's community court used jurisdiction periods of two weeks for Level One, 30 days for Level Two and 45 days for Level Three, far shorter than Connection Court's 90-day window. For now, Connection Court will be presided over for the rest of 2026 by retiring Municipal Court Judge Willie Gregory, according to PublicCola, leaving the program's longer-term trajectory, and whether it can avoid the pitfalls that doomed its predecessor, still an open question.
