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Evers, treatment-court staff tout budget proposal’s investment in treatment alternatives

By: Michaela Paukner, [email protected]//April 16, 2021//

Evers, treatment-court staff tout budget proposal’s investment in treatment alternatives

By: Michaela Paukner, [email protected]//April 16, 2021//

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Gov. Tony Evers, managers from La Crosse County’s treatment courts and local lawmakers touted investments in the governor’s proposed 2021-23 budget meant to offer more treatment alternatives and diversion programming throughout Wisconsin.

Mandy Bisek, La Crosse County justice support services manager; Kim Joki, La Crosse County diversion coordinator; Sen. Brad Pfaff, D-La Crosse; and Rep. Jill Billings, D-La Crosse, joined Evers at a press conference on Thursday to draw attention to TAD funding in the governor’s Badger Bounceback budget proposal.

The 2021-23 budget provides an additional $15 million over the biennium for TAD funding. The TAD program, established in 2005, is meant to reduce recidivism and costs by providing resources and treatment for specific needs and outside the usual criminal-justice system. It now supports 57 treatment courts and 29 diversion programs in 53 counties and three tribal nations. The money set aside for TAD programs comes to about $7.2 million a year, according to the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council.

In a statement, Evers said the justice system puts a strain on the state with its costs and its shortcomings in rehabilitation, treatment and alternatives to incarceration. He said the budget would put money into evidence-based solutions and provides help to people, not prisons.

A report from the Wisconsin Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Information and Analysis estimated that every dollar in TAD funding spent on treatment courts saves the state $4.17, and every dollar spent on diversion programs saves $8.68.

Evers is also recommending making statutory language changes related to the TAD program. The governor is proposing to reduce the match-funds requirement for counties from 25% to 10% and specifying that a program paid for by a TAD grant doesn’t need to concentrate solely on alcohol and other drug treatment, but must employ evidence-based practices meant for the population served by the program. His office said this will enable veterans courts, mental-health courts, and other diversion programs to provide access TAD funding.

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