This Zoom event includes many speakers about sentencing in Dane County. It includes informative presentations followed by a Q&A with judicial candidates.
Part 1 is two hours. Speakers include Marquette Law Professor Michael O’Hear, UW Madison Law Professor Cecelia Klingele, Dane County District Attorney Ishmael Ozanne, State Public Defender Catherine Dorl , Judge Nicholas McNamara, people who have been incarcerated, and MOSES members.
Part 2 continues the discussion. It is 1:25 long. It includes statements by many different people who are judges or candidates for judge who were asked to answer specific questions about sentencing after hearing the earlier presentations.
Improving Mental Health Treatment in Dane County
and Keeping People Out of the Criminal Justice System
The criminal justice system is not designed to meet the needs of people needing mental health care. Yet, today, a large portion of people in the Dane County Jail have mental health issues (nearly 40% are receiving psychotropic medications) and there is a high racial disparity in this population. Many stakeholders in the county are now working to reduce the number of people with mental health issues who are incarcerated in the jail and are searching for effective approaches to achieve this objective. As a contribution to this effort, MOSES (Madison Organizing in Strength, Equality, and Solidarity) offers the following Desired Future Conditions to describe an improved criminal justice system, an improved mental health care delivery system, and the kind of community in which we desire to live.
Desired Future Conditions
Dane County Mental Health System
There is timely access to effective mental health care for everyone in Dane County through a coordinated system of providers, regardless of payer status. Trauma-informed care practices are an essential part of the system.
There is a coordinated approach among service providers, referring organizations, first responders, etc. to help people navigate the system and find the services that they need, including housing, transportation, employment, and other supportive services.
Case management (identification of needs and coordination of services) is available to all individuals who need it, bridging provider and agency boundaries. Peer support specialists are involved throughout the system.
Dane County Crisis/Restoration Center and Crisis Management
A Crisis/Restoration Center (providing mental health urgent care services 24 hours a day) is available to anyone in the community needing such services. The Crisis/Restoration Center provides immediate triage and stabilization followed by seamless/uninterrupted access to community services for longer-term treatment as needed. These services include treatment for co-occurring substance abuse disorders as needed.
First Responders (law enforcement officers, fire, EMS, 911 dispatchers), when responding to a call, have access to professional mental health consultation (in person on the scene, or through phone consultation) regarding background information and in making a decision on the appropriate next steps and/or facility placement for the individuals involved or needing assistance.
The Crisis/Restoration Center provides a viable treatment option in lieu of charging people with a crime and booking them into the Dane County Jail.
Dane County embraces and has established policies and procedures to direct people with mental illness who have a police contact to a treatment facility or program rather than into the criminal justice system. All First Responders are trained to identify and respond appropriately to people having a mental health crisis.
The Department of Corrections, Division of Community Corrections proactively determines needs for services for those on probation and supervision and assures that appropriate clients receive treatment from the mental health care delivery system as a way of improving compliance with rules, in lieu of probation holds and seeking revocation to state prison.
Dane County Jail Policy and Procedures
Jail intake personnel are trained and empowered to identify people with mental health issues who need to be diverted to the Crisis/Restoration Center.
The psychiatric services contractor is empowered to identify people in the jail who need to be moved to a mental health treatment center to prevent decompensation, and to recommend such action to jail supervision.
There are measurable definitions for identifying people in the jail who have mental health issues and these definitions are utilized by trained personnel to implement and regularly and transparently evaluate best practices. People with mental health challenges are not subjected to solitary confinement and/or sensory deprivation.
The jail emphasizes continuity of care for people with mental health issues. This care includes connecting with providers in the community, maintaining current medications, and doing reentry planning that connects individuals to mental health and other supportive services when they are released.
Administration and Management
Key stakeholders from the mental health system, the criminal justice system, and the community meet at least quarterly as partners in overseeing the management of these two systems.
Data is developed and used to manage and evaluate the systems and is also shared with the public in meaningful and transparent ways to enable citizens to understand the operations of our criminal justice systems. Programs and policies are evidence-based and routinely assessed to provide accountability.
While respecting HIPPA and other confidentiality requirements, information is shared among agencies and providers to better serve individuals with mental health issues. Family involvement is sought in order to develop and provide support for effective, holistic treatment plans.
Prepared by MOSES Justice System Reform Initiative, Crisis-Restoration Center Workgroup, April 2018
Recently, the Dane County Sheriff’s office released a study conducted by Mead & Hunt recommending plans for a new Dane County Jail. The cost to taxpayers would be close to $135M. MOSES has had conversations with Sheriff Mahoney, several stakeholders, and has done thorough review and discussion of the Mead & Hunt report. MOSES is working hard to find the best solution to these complicated issues and is committed to working collaboratively with other stakeholders toward that goal. The following is MOSES’ official position on the new jail proposal (Click here to download a pdf).
A New $130M Dane County Jail? The Wrong Solution to the Wrong Problem
MOSES rejects the proposal for a new Dane County jail. Data show that a large percentage of the people in Dane County jail are there unnecessarily. Correcting outdated and misaligned policies and practices would dramatically reduce the number of jailed people, beginning in the next few months. This is the shortest path toward closing all or part of the unsafe City-County Building jail, reducing racial disparities, and avoiding waste of lives and money. It is also a necessary prerequisite to making credible projections about long-term jail needs. needs.
Dane county contracted with a prison design firm, Mead and Hunt, to produce a report and recommendations for a new jail. After studying their document, the concerned citizens of MOSES reject the proposal. We are clear that no new jail building is needed, for the following reasons:
We agree that the City-County Building jail is sub-standard, and that this must be addressed immediately.
The fastest and most cost-effective solution lies not in brick and mortar, but in rapidly implementing proven newsystems and policy changes to immediately stop unnecessary incarceration. With fewer people in all three jail sites, the City-County building site can be fully or partially emptied, remodeled, and put to other non-jail use.
A new jail building (estimated to cost $130-$141M) would not only be wasteful and unnecessary, but may also sustain or worsen Dane County’s excessive incarceration rate and appalling racial disparities.
In MOSES’ view, the Mead and Hunt report:
Assumes that Dane County’s already outdated incarceration policies and practices will continue.
Ignores more cost-effective alternatives already implemented and proven throughout the U.S.
Inflates the number of beds needed, based on questionable projections of the number of people in jail.[1]
Creates perverse incentives to jail more people in order to maximize staffing and facility efficiency.[2]
Proposes to generate revenue by incarcerating people from other counties’ jails–particularly youth.[3]
Assumes incarcerating the same or greater number of people with mental illness.
Ignores new funding opportunities in BadgerCare expansion to single individuals starting April 1, 2014.
Dane County’s incarceration rates can, should, and must be lowered by implementing new standards of practice, including treatment, alternatives, and diversions in the arrest, pre-trial detention, prosecution, and incarceration stages of the criminal justice process. These practices are well established elsewhere and proven to be more cost- effective and better for communities. Medicaid funds are also now more available to fund treatment alternatives.
As one example: Black people are typically 48% of the Dane County jail population but only 14% of those on home electronic monitoring. This likely relates to inability to pay the required $20/day fee to participate in electronic monitoring. The effect is that African Americans are disproportionately incarcerated unnecessarily.
The table on reverse side shows many examples of unnecessary incarceration, and the changes that could reduce it. MOSES is working hard for the changes needed to correct this terrible situation in our county.
[1]Despite a decline in Madison arrests since 2004, a decline in the number of new District Attorney cases since 2007, and a large decline in the average daily number of people in jail since 2006, the plan projects future jail space need by using a starting number higher than the current average daily number of jailed people, and then projects a steady increase.
[2] The plan proposes 64-bed “pods” to maximize facility/staffing efficiency. But each pod is only efficient if at least 90% full.
[3] The plan projects only 14 youth beds needed, but proposes a 40-bed youth unit so that Dane County can make over $1 M annual revenue housing teens from other counties.
PEOPLE INCARCERATED IN DANE COUNTY JAIL ADP = Average Daily Population (2012 actual or 2013 estimated); LOS = Length of stay (in days)
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[1] The Hoover Family Foundation has trained MOSES volunteers to help people apply for benefits, and has offered funding for other ways (e.g., bail fund) to stop unnecessary incarceration.
