The differences between Dane County’s newest treatment court and the typical criminal court are readily apparent.
For one, the judge, Nia Trammell, doesn’t wear a robe or sit in her usual elevated position on the bench. Instead, she and a court commissioner occupy a pair of chairs on the floor, at eye level with the defendant.
Decorated with plants and inspirational signs declaring “progress over perfection” and “We rise by lifting others,” the courtroom is arguably less intimidating.
And on a recent Tuesday in June, a smiling Trammell introduced herself to the defendant and walked over to shake her hand, then introduced, by name, the bailiff, court clerk and court commissioner.
Dane County Community Court officially began operations on May 26, some six years after planning got underway by those in county government interested in getting at the root causes of the behavior that brings individuals into the criminal justice system in the first place. The court aims to help repeat offenders get the services they need and, by so doing, make them less likely to reoffend.
Trammell said that so far, she’s “incredibly optimistic for this court.”
“I’ve been getting positive feedback from attorneys that I interface with at the courthouse, when they’re learning about the program and learning about this new opportunity that we have to address criminal cases in an innovative way,” she said.
As of July 21, the DA had referred eight people to Community Court, including one person who has since been accepted into the program after pleading guilty and signing a contract with the court, according to Colleen Clark Bernhardt, who as director of the county’s Office of Justice Reform helped launch the court. It’s not clear yet how many cases the court could handle at any one time, according to court Commissioner Signé Mbainai.
To start, Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne is primarily referring retail theft cases to the court — because such cases come with fewer issues for victims — but the plan is to expand the variety of cases the court hears.
How it works
Participants have to agree to sign contracts requiring them to get needed services and, if they complete the program, they could have their charges dismissed or reduced, according to Mbainai. Defendants would know before they start the process which the DA’s office is willing to do, she said.
The court’s coordinator, Jael Currie, is responsible for working with defendants to determine what services they need, but those could include things like job training, substance abuse treatment and help finding housing.
Then come regular check-ins with the court to ensure participants are abiding by those agreements, which are expected to take up to 12 months to complete. Fail to do so, and their cases get returned to the regular court system.
Only those ages 17 to 35 and accused of nonviolent offenses are eligible for community court. The District Attorney’s Office has the ultimate say over who is referred to the court and thus, who is served.
The court’s first participant, a 33-year-old Madison woman, pleaded guilty on July 8 in two retail theft cases, but instead of proceeding to sentencing, her cases were moved into Community Court. The Wisconsin State Journal is not using her name because if she completes programming, she will have her charges dismissed.
During her initial hearing on July 21, Trammell outlined the agreement the woman was about to sign. It included requirements that she pursue drug treatment and employment and make sure she’s signed up for public welfare benefits such as Medicaid.
It also will require her to pay any restitution to the stores she stole from or, if she’s not able to do that, write them letters of apology.
“This is a big step that you’re taking,” Trammell told the woman, and reminded her to “lean on our staff” as she moves through the process.
As a last bit of business, the court presented her with a gift basket from the chicken restaurant Raising Cane’s that included Cane’s swag and a gift card for a free meal.
Designing the system
Getting the new court up and running wasn’t easy. Plans for the court began in earnest in 2020. As of this last November, Trammell and County Executive Melissa Agard were predicting that the court would be in its pilot phase by the end of last year.
Delays were mostly the result of a handful of disagreements between the District Attorney’s Office and those planning the court through the county’s Office of Justice Reform.
In particular, stakeholders originally envisioned that the court would take defendants after they’d been charged with a crime but before they’d entered a plea, according to Clark Bernhardt.
DA Ismael Ozanne, however, advocated for a model similar to his office’s Deferred Prosecution Program, in which defendants plead guilty but are not formally convicted. Instead, if a defendant completes assigned programming, such as counseling or drug treatment, no conviction is ever entered.
Trammell hopes the court could eventually take some cases pre-plea, and Ozanne said he’s willing to consider that change after the court has been operating for a year.
She said a hybrid model, in which cases could be addressed pre- or post-plea, would allow the court to serve people who want to preserve their right to a trial but still get services.
“If you’re not putting those services into place, then you may end up seeing that person again,” she said.
Ozanne also had concerns about how victims’ rights and restitution for crimes committed would be handled.
“This cannot be a program that blames victims or pushes a ‘shared accountability’ for an offender’s actions,” he wrote in a June 4 letter to the county’s Community Justice Council, which works with the Office of Justice Reform.
Under the state law and the state constitution, victims have the right to attend and be heard in court proceedings. Ozanne added that he hopes that “as this program continues to develop that victims will be given the opportunity to engage in restorative practices with defendants and community members in the form of peace circles and dialogs.”
Clark Bernhardt said the court intends to have regular hearings to hear from victims.
Why a new court?
Dane County already offers courts for people involved in substance abuse and charged with drunken driving, as well as one for veterans.
And the county offers a community restorative court program for people ages 17 to 25 who have been arrested for a misdemeanor or cited with an ordinance violation. That’s not part of the county court system, however, and typically requires participants to take responsibility for their crimes and complete volunteer work or other programming.
Trammell said she’s heard questions about whether the county needs the new treatment court, but she believes there is a population of repeat offenders who may not qualify for existing programs and could benefit from a different approach.
“This program really is designed to capture repeat offenders who are in need of services,” she said. “There is this subset of individuals in our community who, with a little helping hand or a little boost, could turn things around. That is the community that we are trying to serve, and sometimes they can get lost in the shuffle.”