The Northern Wyoming Treatment Court is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that provides services in the Big Horn Basin using the drug court treatment model.
Mission
The mission of the Northern Wyoming Treatment Court is to provide a meaningful, sustainable, independent path leading to a life free from substance abuse, crime, incarceration, and dependency.
Program goals: To strive for program retention and graduation of participants, to strive for recovery of participants, to reduce recidivism by participants, to monitor the services provided to participants, to broaden service availability to include neighboring rural areas lacking in these necessary services.
Program Director – Sabrina Burke
Sabrina has over 30 years of experience in the areas of mental and behavioral health, social services, and crisis care. Her passion for this program and the real results that people achieve through it, led her to bring together members of the community to found this organization as a collective effort to make treatment court services available.
Program Logic Model
Treatment court programs involve a close collaboration between a judge and a community service team to develop a case plan, closely monitor a participant’s compliance, and respond appropriately with incentives, sanctions and therapeutic adjustments.
– WY Treatment Court Standards
Who Can Receive Services?
The program delivers services to adults eligible per the criteria established in WY statute 5-12-109. Participation in court supervised treatment program; conditions; extended probation:
(a) No substance offender may participate in a program unless the substance offender, in a Wyoming district, juvenile, circuit, municipal or tribal court, has been charged with an offense; and:
(i) Has entered an admission, or a guilty or nolo contendere plea;
(ii) Has entered a guilty plea pursuant to W.S. 7-13-301;
(iii) Has signed a consent decree under title 14 of the Wyoming statutes; or
(iv) Is on parole under the provisions of W.S. 7-13-401 et seq.
(b) Any district, juvenile, circuit, municipal or tribal court judge, or magistrate, may refer substance offenders for participation in a program. The referring judge may act as a participating judge in a program as authorized by this act and by rules adopted by the supreme court. A substance offender who is a defendant in a criminal action or a respondent in a juvenile court action may be referred for participation in a program if:
(i) A substance abuse assessment reveals that the person is in need of treatment;
(ii) The referring judge has reason to believe that participation in a program will benefit the person by addressing his substance abuse;
(iv) The person’s case is processed pursuant to subsection (a) of this section.
(c) Participation in a program shall only be with the consent of the referring judge and the participant, and acceptance of the participant by the program team in accordance with a written agreement between the participant and the program team. The agreement shall include the participant’s consent to release of medical and other records relevant to his treatment history and assessment that meets the requirements of 42 U.S.C. 290dd-2(b) or 42 C.F.R. part 2.31, as applicable. Prior to a participant’s entry into a written agreement, the participating judge shall inform the participant that he may be subject to a term of probation that exceeds the maximum term of imprisonment established for the particular offense charged, as provided in W.S. 5-9-134 and 5-12-116.
(d) Nothing in this act shall confer a right or an expectation of a right to participate in a program, nor does this act obligate a program team to accept any proposed participant. Neither the establishment of a program nor anything herein contained shall be construed as limiting the discretion of a prosecuting attorney in regard to the prosecution of any criminal or juvenile case. Consent to participation in a program under subsection (c) of this section shall only be required from the referring judge and participant.
Treatment Court Standards
“On April 23, 2024, the Wyoming Supreme Court amended the Rules Governing Court Supervised Treatment Programs, introducing Rule 18. This rule mandates that all treatment courts in Wyoming adhere to standards maintained by the Wyoming Supreme Court, which are published on the Wyoming Judicial Branch website.”
