Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
IRONWOOD — Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel stopped by the Daily Globe’s office Wednesday during a swing through the Northwoods to visit local politicians and law enforcement officers and discuss ways the Wisconsin Department of Justice can assist their communities.
Schimel visited Florence and Vilas counties Tuesday, and was continuing to Price County after his Wednesday stop in Iron County.
“There’s a couple purposes (to my visit). One is to introduce myself to a lot of local officials and let them know what (the Wisconsin Department of Justice) does and what we can offer to local municipalities,” Schimel said. “But more importantly, it’s to listen. I spent 27 years in the Waukesha DA’s office down in the southeastern part of the state. I know Waukesha County, I know southeastern Wisconsin very well.
“Other parts of the state — I don’t want to sit in my office in Madison and presume I know what’s best for those counties, it makes more sense for me to get up there and ask them.”
Iron County cases
There have been a couple of major cases in Iron County in the last year that have attracted resources from outside the county — primarily the July 4 explosion at the Northwoods Paving asphalt plant in Kimball, and the prosecution of Donald Rick in connection with the March 12 fire at the Bear Trap Inn in Saxon and death of Lisa Waldros.
While Schimel was unable to provide any update on the asphalt plant — which also involves federal authorities — he said the appointment of Assistant Attorney General Richard Dufor to prosecute Rick was an example of how the state helped rural communities by providing additional resources.
“We have a team of lawyers at the Department of Justice who do that every day. They go out to the local counties and help on those major cases,” Schimel said.
The state can either handle the cases or assist local efforts, depending on the local preference, allowing the district attorney and law enforcement officers to continue their day-to-day responsibilities.
“If the local (district attorney) were to handle that homicide case, realistically ... that’s going to consume six to 12 weeks of his time. And he’s not going to have much time to work on much of anything else, just to get that case ready for trial,” Schimel said.
Drug problems
One consistent message Schimel has heard on his tour of the Northwoods counties is the same as elsewhere in the state — a tremendous concern with the rising rate of opiate addiction in communities.
“Most of the conversation is about the opiate epidemic — prescription painkillers and heroin. I’ve made it my No. 1 priority as attorney general and everything I am hearing affirms that I made the right choice.
“This is effecting every kind of community, from our most urban to our most rural and everything in between,” he said, calling the epidemic “devastating.”
Schimel said the consequences of it were widespread; ranging from a “dramatic” increase in infants born with addiction issues and opioid overdoses overtaking car crashes as a cause of death in Wisconsin to jails filling with people needing treatment and a rise in robbery, burglary and similar crime rates.
While law enforcement is one important way to approach the problem, Schimel said increasing rural treatment resources was also key.
“(Rural areas are) just screaming for help, because they don’t have local treatment resources,” he said. “Often times, people are going to have to travel one hour or two hours — an hour is probably optimistic, probably two hours — to get to a treatment location. And even then the resources are scarce. There is just not enough to handle the nature of the problem.”
Schimel said the department is managing grants and advocating for increased funding to combat the issues, as well as pushing treatment and diversion courts as an alternative to the legal system.
Schimel said these alternative systems are designed to disrupt the cycle of repeated offenses that he called, “Doing life in prison on the installment plan.”
Prevention campaign
The Department of Justice has also launched a prevention campaign, called “Dose of Reality,” that focuses on people realizing the seriousness of the opiate problem.
“We know that 70 percent of the people who start abusing prescription medications get them from a family member or a friend,” Schimel said. “They either steal them, or they are shared with them.
“We need people to realize that prescription medications are for you, and only in the way the doctor intended for you to take them. Don’t share them. Don’t abuse them.”
The theft of prescription medications is particularly problematic with young people, he said.
Schimel encouraged those with old or unused medications to either dispose of them at a local law enforcement office, or at one of the department’s drug take-back days.
Wisconsin had the third most drugs returned during its April collection day, beaten only by Texas an California, with over 64,000 pounds collected statewide.
“That’s three semi-trucks full of boxed-up and shrink-wrapped pallets,” he said. “That’s a great sign the message is getting out and people are starting to recognize these things are hazardous in their homes.”
Interstate cooperation
Another effort Schimel said the department was advocating for is reducing the hurdles preventing cross-border cooperation in the counties bordering Michigan.
“Ironwood and Hurley have to work together, all the time. Neither one of them has the resources to do major investigations alone, for instances,” he said. “So they work together. We’ve got to make sure the laws in both states make it easy for them to do that.”
He said he has also heard about the jurisdictional issues created by the border from county departments of health and humans services as well.
“That’s why I’m here, to find out what are the challenges and what can I do to try to help. Some of it is going to be resources, some of it will be legislative changes (and) advocating on their behalf.”
Local meth problems
While opiates are a state-wide issue, Schimel said methamphetamine abuse is more unique to the northern and western parts of the state.
“Down in southeastern Wisconsin, methamphetamine is not a significant problem. We’ve had very rare instances where it’s poked its head up. Whereas come to the northwest part of the state, it’s been a very big problem for years,” Schimel said. “So it’s good for me to get here and hear what their concerns are and how we might be able to help.”
