Marathon County OWI Court Program

The purpose of the Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program (42 U.S.C. 3797u et seq.) is to provide financial and technical assistance to states, state courts, local courts, units of local government, and Indian tribal governments to develop and implement drug treatment courts that effectively integrate substance abuse treatment, mandatory drug testing, sanctions and incentives, and transitional services in a judicially supervised court setting with jurisdiction over nonviolent, substance-abusing offenders. The FY 2010 Adult Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program will provide grant funds to jurisdictions to implement or enhance a local drug court or to improve, enhance, expand, or financial support drug court services statewide.

Marathon County will use the grant funds to implement an adult Operating While Intoxicated (OWI) court to assist nonviolent offenders with the successful rehabilitation from the use of drugs and/or alcohol. The intent of the OWI court will be to reduce the number of repeat OWI offenses, improve the health of program participants, and promote collaboration between treatment, courts, law enforcement, medical services, and corrections. The program will accomplish these goals by providing increased supervision and monitoring by the court, community supervision, and treatment services. The program will provide a clinically competent objective assessment of participants to determine the level of medical and mental health care required to improve health and assist with successful rehabilitation. A strong team approach will build essential partnerships to enhance support for the participants and broaden available resources. An outcome evaluation using a comparison group will be developed to show the accomplishment of the Marathon County OWI Court Program goals and will provide specific recommendations for improving the quality of the program.

CA/NCF