A study conducted by a UW-Whitewater professor found that Rock County’s drug court program lowered rates of recidivism among nonviolent offenders.
The study, by associate professor Dr. Paul D. Gregory and presented Thursday to Rock County’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council meeting, also found participation in and graduation from the program helped reduce the jail population.
Program history
The Rock County Drug Treatment Court Program was instituted in 2007 as an alternative for offenders looking to from drug addiction and other related problems. For more than a decade, the system has provided individuals facing jail sentences a more productive, sometimes life-saving path.
From its inception, the program saw steady graduation rates leading up to 2020, but according to Gregory’s presentation, the total number of individuals in the program dropped from 67 in 2008 to a low of 25 in 2019.
Gregory said his findings pointed to annual successes. Using data from the 12 years since the inaugural year prior to 2020, the results showed the program fulfilled two goals of reducing recidivism and keeping people out of jail.
Because Gregory based his data collection on graduates, his research did not stretch to the current day to avoid omitting those who have not yet finished the program.
Local outcomes
As of Aug. 30, 2020, the drug court admitted 595 individuals, with 312 finishing the program. During this same span of time, 283 were unable to finish drug court and were “unsuccessfully terminated.”
In his presentation, Gregory pointed out that this 52.4% completion rate was only slightly lower than the national average of 59%.
When broken down across gender and racial demographic lines, men accounted for around 71% of drug court participants. Women made up roughly one-third of the total.
With respect to race, Gregory’s report noted that 20% of the group consisted of racial minorities. Of that subgroup, Black people comprised 86% of participants with a graduation rate of 46%.
Council reaction
After his presentation, Gregory took questions from members of the council, some of whom represented the Rock County Drug Treatment Court team from the district attorney’s office, public defender’s office, and other members of law enforcement and the local judiciary.
Kelly Mattingly, the attorney manager at the public defender’s office and member of the CJCC, raised concerns over what he considers to be an insufficient referral system into the program. He said lately there has been a smaller-than-usual pool of drug court clients.
In order to qualify for and enter drug court, individuals must meet one of two criteria. One is acceptance of a post-plea or pre-adjudication process. The second option is accepting an “alternative to revocation,” or ATR, process through probation or parole.
Commenting on the latter process, CJCC member and Rock County Judge Barbary McCrory said that out of the 17-member capacity for those who opt for probation or parole-based rehabilitation, only eight individuals are participating.
Gregory’s report noted that a majority of program referrals are identified by defense attorneys and prosecutors, a process Mattingly said has been problematic.
“One area that we don’t use best practices in (is) how court referrals are made because we have a gatekeeper,” Mattingly said. The district attorney’s office, which acts as that gatekeeper, has the authority to override and reject referrals.
“The best practice is that anyone is able to make a referral to drug court (and) that person is assessed and their risks and needs are assessed,” Mattingly said.
No representative from the district attorney’s office was present at the meeting.
While the members of the committee agreed the results were encouraging, the majority called for a review to analyze and assess areas they thought were in need of adjustment. Gregory said he is in the process of working on a separate, broader review with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.
In addition to Gregory’s recent review, McCrory and the drug court team are taking their own measures to ensure any gaps or issues related to underserved individuals are addressed.
One such step involving inclusion training will take place in September, “just to make sure that we are continuing to move forward and do the stuff we need to do,” McCrory added.
