This paper is based on a study of alternative mechanisms of criminal prosecution, specifically the “third way,” used in the jurisdictions of Bobigny (Parisian suburbs) and Bordeaux. It highlights the role of the public prosecutor’s delegates in charge of implementing alternative responses to delinquency and the meaning of their interventions. These delegates are members of civil society and have been recruited by the public prosecutor’s office since the 1990s. This paper demonstrates the heterogeneity of such practices, which mainly depend on the importance of the local constraints managed by the two courts of law. This type of research is needed in a context where the involvement of these delegates in dealing with criminals will continue to rise so long as government policies continue to favor a systematic response to crime.