Family Drug Treatment Court Sees Big Funding Boost

Milwaukee County Courthouse. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

Milwaukee County’s Family Drug Treatment Court is seeing a funding boost thanks to unanticipated federal funds.

The court is a voluntary program for parents that have been separated from their children as a result of drug or alcohol addiction bringing them into contact with the criminal justice system. Participants work with the court for more than a year and participate in drug and alcohol counseling with the ultimate goal being reunification with their child.

The county budgeted $75,000 for the court in 2025. However, the court was awarded a $719,500 federal grant from the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) that will greatly increase the budget in the coming years, according to a report from Chief Judge Carl Ashley.

The funding will be used to expand parent coaches and visitation specialists working with the court, fund training for employees and programming for program alumni.

Milwaukee County has received more than $1.5 million in grants from the OJJDP in recent years. It last received a grant for the family treatment court in 2017.

The Family Drug Treatment Court is one of Milwaukee’s “problem-solving” courts. It is similar to the adult drug treatment court, however, it is confidential and does not use legal sanctions — like short-term incarceration — for failing to meet the program requirements.

Beyond family reunification, the court is designed to reduce recidivism by addressing underlying drug and alcohol dependency and to provide the resources for stable sobriety and improved behavioral health. Participants must make weekly contact with the court and the program can run for 12 to 18 months.

Researchers from UW-Milwaukee’s Institute for Child and Family Wellbeing studied the county’s family treatment court for five years between 2017 and 2021, finding program participants were 81% more likely to reunify with their children. However, it was not clear whether the program had a material impact on safety for children after parents completed the program.

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