DARLINGTON — The Wisconsin Department of Justice recently awarded Lafayette County with a two-year Treatment Alternatives and Diversion grant of $118,533 to help establish an operating while intoxicated, or OWI, court in the county.
“It is something I am very passionate about and grateful we received,” said Court Services Coordinator Kris Fleming.
The OWI court is a five-phase program intended to reduce recidivism rates, reduce participants’ substance abuse and provide rehabilitation. It will take up to 10 participants at a time and is aimed at those with three or more OWI convictions.
“We do have an OWI problem in Lafayette County,” Fleming said. “We’re very rural. We don’t have any other options for transportation. I think we’re very eager to put into place services to help the folks in our county so they can become productive members of society.”
The grant starts Jan. 1. Fleming said her goal is to have the program up and running by July 1. She is hoping to hire a full-time Treatment Court Clinician by the end of January.
Sending people convicted of OWI to prison or jail without treatment doesn’t work, Fleming said.
“People make mistakes, and if I have an addiction and I haven’t had treatment to help me deal with the addiction, I’m going to continue to do it,” said Fleming.
Lafayette County Sheriff Reg Gill also sees an opportunity for improvement with the OWI court.
“The current system doesn’t seem to really be effective. Just putting them in jail for a certain amount of time and letting them out isn’t working,” he said. “It’s not uncommon for someone to make a bad choice — that’s one thing. But when you get beyond a third offense, there’s alcohol issue.”
By having offenders participate in OWI court, Gill said, “the hope is that it can help them make a shift in the way they conduct their lives.”
OWI courts aim to help those with an addiction learn about their addiction and give them coping skills so they don’t start using again.
A team of representatives from the county — judge, law enforcement, probation and parole, district attorney, public defender, court services — work together to hold participants accountable for their own sobriety and transformation back into society.
“It is not an easy program,” Fleming said. Participants have to pay for some programming. They are required to find a job and housing and attend counseling, meetings and mandatory court appearances, along with random drug and alcohol testing.
The program also pushes participants to get their driver’s license, which, with an OWI on their record, has an additional cost. They will also need to complete a driver safety assessment that is only done through Human Services.
OWI court allows “the entire criminal justice system to look at the issue of addiction in our county,” according to Lafayette County District Attorney Jenna Gill. “The individuals that will be participating don’t want to continue re-offending, but the support and resources are lacking in our county.”
OWI court offers structure and support for offenders to succeed so they don’t end up back in the court system or in jail or prison, according to Gill.
“This program will work to get those individuals the treatment they need to be a contributing member of our community,” she said.
It has been a long process to get the program started in the county, which first began looking into grants to fund an OWI or drug court after Judge Duane Jorgenson was elected in 2015.
Fleming oversaw the application process for the grant.
“It’s very arduous. It’s a lot of information-gathering,” Fleming said, noting that she got “a lot of help from everyone in the court,” including the sheriff’s office, judge and district attorney.
Lafayette County is one of four new jurisdictions to receive TAD funding. The others are Door County, Ho-Chunk Nation and Shawano County. Other counties received grants to expand existing programs.
The program would not be possible without the grant, but the plan is for it to continue longterm without grant funding.
“Lafayette County is very cash-strapped,” Fleming said. However, the county is providing an in-kind match of 25% of grant funding. The county board is also planning to move personnel costs from the grant to the county levy in incremental amounts to allow the county to continue in the program when the grant funding runs out.
“The county board has been absolutely fantastic. They’ve been behind everything,” Fleming said.
Wisconsin’s first OWI court opened to participants in 2006 in Waukesha County. The TAD program is now operating in almost 50 counties and two tribes in Wisconsin.
OWI courts have been shown to offer cost savings in terms of jail and prison days averted. According to the Department of Justice, 81% of TAD graduates did not have any new convictions after three years.
Even participants who don’t complete the program benefit from it, Fleming said.
“Even if they fail at the program, they still learn skills. They spend a period of time with sobriety. They have those supports and the intense treatment. Even if they are not successful, they are still getting something out of it,” she said.
— Katjusa Cisar
contributed reporting