Treatment Alternatives and Diversion Work Group
Our purpose is to advocate for the expansion of state TAD funding and program eligibility
and for equitable funding allocation.
The TAD work group meets on an as-needed basis, currently at 5:00 pm on the 1st Tuesday of the month via Zoom
To confirm current month meeting time and zoom link instructions, see the MOSES Calendar
Our actions:
Actions the TAD work group takes include:
- Promoting funding for the Wisconsin Treatment Alternatives and Diversion (TAD) Program;
- Testifying for increased funding at biennial state budget hearings and elsewhere;
- Contacting the Governor, legislators, and others to encourage changes in TAD program eligibility and equitable fund allocation;
- Educating local member congregations and organizations on TAD and more broadly on alternatives to and diversions from incarceration.
For the 2025-2027 budget cycle, we are asking for a significant increase in TAD funding as well as expanded eligibility.
A summary of the TAD work group’s three-part “ask” of the governor and legislature for the 2023-2025 state budget:
- Expand TAD: we urged the governor to include a 15 million dollar annual increase in available TAD funding. (The 2022 TAD allocation was just under $7,200,000 annually, with additional money available for calendar year 2023.) An increase of 12 million dollars was included in the biennial state budget–although the increase in the budget as approved was changed to one million annually.
- Expand eligibility: we continued to advocate for changes in the TAD statute so that people with a mental health issue—and not necessarily a co-occurring substance use disorder—are eligible to participate in TAD-funded programming, and people who have a conviction for a “violent” crime at any time in their past are eligible.
- Allocate funds equitably: we continued to urge that funding be targeted to the communities with the highest rates of incarceration. Funding should be proportional to the racial, geographic, and economic representation in the current populations of Wisconsin’s jails and prisons.
Learn more:
What is TAD?
TAD is an acronym for Treatment Alternatives and Diversion. The Wisconsin state TAD program, established by 2005 Wisconsin Act 25, provides grants to counties (and some tribes) to support county efforts to provide treatment and diversion programs for “non-violent adults offenders for whom substance abuse was a contributing factor in their criminal activity”, to quote the wording used on the state Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) website to describe the TAD program.
TAD grants are currently awarded as part of a five-year competitive cycle. As of 2024, 59 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties (and three tribes) have TAD-funded programs, which typically are either treatment courts–for example, Drug, OWI, or Veteran’s courts—or pre or post charge diversion programs—for example, a deferred prosecution or “first offender” program. The grant program is outlined in some detail—although not by name–in the Wisconsin Statutes. As described in the statutes, TAD-funded programs need to be “designed to promote public safety, reduce jail and prison populations, reduce prosecution and incarceration costs, reduce recidivism, and improve the welfare of participants’ families by meeting the comprehensive needs of participants.”
For more information on the TAD Program:
TAD language in the statutes: (165.95)
State Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC):
Department of Justice TAD dashboard and reports
Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) 2023-2025 biennial budget paper #530 includes a listing of 2023 TAD-funded grant projects
The TAD Work Group is part of WISDOM’s Transformational Justice Campaign