MILWAUKEE EVIDENCE BASED CRIMINAL JUSTICE DECISIONS

Judge Jeffrey Kremers, Chief Judge for Milwaukee County, discussed how 7 years ago Milwaukee County was faced with a law suit involving conditions of the jail. In addition to fixing the conditions, they were asked to reconstitute its Community Justice Council. About 3 years ago, there was an opportunity to apply for a National Institute of Corrections grant dealing with evidence based decision making in the criminal justice system. Seven cities were selected as winners of this competition and Milwaukee was one of the seven. They spent a year with technical assistance including mapping their criminal justice system with the goal to be one of the finalists to get the enhanced technical assistance. Milwaukee County was selected as one of the final three. As part of process, a map was developed to look at where all the decision points where in the criminal justice system. One of the factors they looked at was setting bail. Bail was based on the DA’s experience, the going rate in a community and what a person can pay. The purpose of bail is to ensure that the person comes back to court while the case is pending and that they don’t commit a new offense while the case is pending. The amount is only designed to ensure that they come back to court and the conditions such as GPS are to ensure that a new offense is not committed. In 2009, a one day snap shot study was conducted in the Milwaukee County jail. The average daily population was 3,200 and 23% of inmates paid less than $500 bail. If that number was reduced 10% there would be a 103,870 reduction in jail bed days and a cost savings of $6 million. There are about 5,134 arrests per month, 3,439 bookings, the average length of stay pre-trial is 8.1 days, total length of stay is 21 days, 38% had previous booking and 1% of jail inmates have been booked 7 or more times a year which mostly represents the mentally ill. Evidence based decision making is driven by research defined best practices, sustainable and can be measured, justified and replicated. The goal is to maintain public safety, foster collaboration among agencies, create efficiencies in the use of limited resources and implement sustainable evidence based practices. Everyday risks are taken in setting bail. Monetary bail does not improve court appearance rates for low risk defenders and does not improve community safety. After doing some research, it was determined that there were six factors that will determine if a person is likely to come back to court and commit a new offense: how many cases were filed against them, have they ever failed to appear in court, were they arrested on this case while out on bail on another case, are they employed/primary caregiver, do they have a stable residence and their UNCOPE score. These factors are given points and 7 grids were developed to determine levels of bail and supervision. This program started in January 17, 2012 and 19,000 people were screened and the compliance rate was 86%. The data will be unraveled on May 10th. The failure to appear and committed offenses rate decreased by more than 10% since this program started.

Happy Hour - Thursday, January 31

The next Rotary Happy Hour, sponsored by the Family of Rotary Committee, will be: Thursday, January 31 Fox River House, 311 S. Walnut Street in Appleton 5-7 p.m. Cash Bar / Popcorn and appetizers to purchase (There is also a beer tasting event starting at 7:00 that night featuring Lakefront Brewing. Anyone who is interested is invited to stay. Cost is $5.) Bring a spouse, significant other, friend, potential Rotarian – and join us at “Appleton’s Oldest Saloon” as we relax, get to see old friends and meet new ones, and just enjoy camaraderie and conversation. This is a great way to get to know each other better – and earn a make up as well!

Rotary Shines - Friday, April 19

Rotary Shines will be held on Friday, April 19 at the OuterEdge in Appleton. They will be starting the presale of Wilmar’s Chocolates in time for Valentines Day. Some of the boxes will contain a $50 gift certificate to Avenue Jewelry.

BILLIE POLLARD AND LITERACY EDUCATION SERVICES, INC.

Tom Stenklyft, author of The House that Billie Built, discussed how Billie Pollard was a true treasure to this area until she passed away on November 11, 2012. In the spring of 2008, Billie approached Tom about writing the history of Literacy Education Services, Inc. (LESI). This began a three year process learning and writing about the history of Billie Pollard in Wisconsin. Billie was born March 8, 1914 in Eau Claire. At the age of 9, Billie and her widowed mother moved to Appleton. It was a time when women were given the right to vote and there were challenges with single parents trying to raise children on a teacher’s salary. Billie worked her way through college at Lawrence University teaching swimming, tennis and dance. She graduated in 1937 and began her teaching career at Medford High School. She married a war hero and raised two sons. Billie buried her husband of 50 years and was fired from 2 jobs. As Field Director for the Girl Scouts in Illinois, the organization was to adopt segregation policies. Since Billie did not agree with this, she was no longer needed. Billie returned to Wisconsin to accept this same position and she met her husband. In the early 1970’s, a teacher’s salary required a summer job or to be married to someone who had a job in order to make ends meet. Billie was one of 84 that were fired for going on strike. This freed her up to devote her time to literacy. At age 60, Billie started a 30 year career. She was a member of First United Methodist Church at the time when Vietnamese and Hmong refugees where coming to Appleton to make a new life for themselves. This gave Billie the opportunity to teach English, culture and prepare people for citizenship. First she had to come up with teaching materials, curriculum, space to teach and volunteers. The mission was about building relationships, a hands on process in which teachers and students live out of what they have. Billie felt that when treated right volunteers will outperform paid staff. LESI has one part-time paid employee. LESI also offers scholarships for students and children of students looking for specialized education to go to technical college or a university. . Billie received many awards for her work in literacy. At age 79, she was named one of the most admired senior citizens of Wisconsin. At age 95, she received the Community Service Award for unique and lasting service to the Fox Cities. Billie lives today through the memories of her family and the work of LESI.

RYE Student Florencia Prada

The arrival of Rotary Youth Exchange student Florencia Prada from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

SAMP

The Sharing Around (The World) Medical Project will pack on Tuesday, January 29 from 6:30-8:00 p.m. at the Goodwill Industries Shiner Center located at 1351 W. Spencer Street in Appleton.

Peruvian Mobile Medical Unit

Rotary Youth Short Term Exchange

Rotary Short Term Exchange presents opportunities for students to advance their knowledge and world understanding by allowing them to exchange in a different country. Participants will live with host families in their selected land usually for 3-4 weeks in the summer under the sponsorship of their local Rotary Club. This short term program requires a reciprocity hosting of a student on the return of US student sent. There will be application details and a web-site link for any potential candidate and families to be sponsored by our club. Complete application packets are due in February. For more information and the application - http://www.summerexchange.org/

OUT OF SCHOOL TIME PARTNERSHIP

Lee Allinger, Appleton Area School District (AASD), discussed how in the early 1990’s, school started earlier, lunch periods were shortened to 45 minutes and school was done sooner. The AASD needed to respond to the fact that both parents were working and needed to get their kids to school earlier, the changing family structure and how to provide a hot lunch program. Kids were also coming home to empty houses. The AASD thought about how they provide a safe, caring, nurturing environment for students after school and make it an extension of the school day. The Out of School Time Coalition was formed with the AASD, YMCA and the Boys and Club. Greg Lemke-Rochon, Boys and Girls Club of the Fox Valley, talked about when the Coalition came together their primary concern was to make sure that the services they provided were at the highest quality as they could deliver. The Coalition developed Continuous Improvement Plans under the Wisconsin After School Continuous Improvement Process Tool. The Coalition agreed about some of the critical components of what makes a quality Out of School Time program for kids: a safe and productive environment, diverse range of programs and activities, professional staff, partnerships and a communication strategy. The most dangerous, vulnerable time in a child’s life is after school from 3:00-6:00 p.m. when most are not supervised. Danielle Engelbert, YMCA, explained that the partnership is between the AASD, Boys and Girls Club and YMCA. The Coalition is an expansion of this group adding community members, Outagamie County, Appleton Police Department, FVTC, Harbor House, JC Penney, Building for Kids, City of Appleton, U. W. Extension and additional staff from the 3 partners. The Coalition’s objectives are: to develop a long range plan around issues of access, sustainability, advocacy, high quality programs, develop a system of training and implement the Wisconsin After School Continuous Improvement Process Tool. The Coalition has spent time creating awareness in the community, offered an after school hero week program and organized the Lights on After School event. The Out-of-School Time Partnership is funded through a grant from the Basic Needs Giving Partnership supported by the U.S. Venture Fund for Basic Needs within the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region, and the J.J. Keller Family Foundation, Inc. as well as the State of Wisconsin 21st Century Learning Grant. Jaime Kriewaldt, Out of School Partnership, discussed how this program is located at the following sites: Badger, Columbus, Foster, Highlands, Horizon, Jefferson, McKinley, Roosevelt, Wilson and Boys and Girls Club. During the 2011-2012 school year, an average of over 1300 students was served. Out of the 1300 students, 725 are considered low income or receive free/reduced lunch and 575 are ethnic/minority. As of the end of September 2012, over 3,000 were enrolled (1500 low income / 1200 ethnic/minority). During a typical day, the students go to the gym/multipurpose room, snack and break time, one hour of academic enrichment activities then sports, technology, arts, health and fitness. Organizations also come in to provide supplemental programming. Most of the programs end at 6:00 p.m. Programming is also offered during the summer months.

Rotary is Close to Ending Polio Worldwide

Rotary is close to ending polio worldwide.

Rotary Youth Exchange Student - Florencia Prada

Florencia Prada, RYE student from Argentina was greeted by Robb Waugus, Rotary Youth Exchange Officer and Board Director for the Rotary Club of Appleton at the airport. Welcome!

Happy Hour - Thursday, January 31

The next Rotary Happy Hour, sponsored by the Family of Rotary Committee, will be: Thursday, January 31 Fox River House 211 S Walnut Street in Appleton 5-7 p.m. Cash Bar / Popcorn and appetizers to purchase (There is also a beer tasting event starting at 7:00 that night featuring Lakefront Brewing. Anyone who is interested is invited to stay. Cost is $5.) Bring a spouse, significant other, friend, potential Rotarian – and join us at “Appleton’s Oldest Saloon” as we relax, get to see old friends and meet new ones, and just enjoy camaraderie and conversation. This is a great way to get to know each other better – and earn a make up as well!

Stunts Committee Presentation - New Year's Resolutions

New Year’s is all about resolutions. A resolution is a commitment a person makes to one or more personal goals, projects or the reforming of a habit made in anticipation of the New Year and new beginnings. The Stunts Committee’s resolution is to come up with programs and activities that will ensure that members no longer choose not to attend meetings when they are scheduled for fear of crazy stunts they make members do. In 2007, a study was done England. Of the 300 people surveyed, 88% of people who set New Years resolutions failed to keep them. The top 10 resolutions are: spend more time with family and friends, fit and fitness, tame the bulge, quit smoking, enjoy life more, quit drinking, get out of debt, learn something new, help others and get organized. Members were asked to chat with others at their tables about their most meaningful resolutions, what resolutions were made and kept, and what resolutions were made and not kept. The Stunts Committee made up some of the following: 1. Dawn Doberstein – Run the Fox Cities Half Marathon in 5” heels. 2. Shane Lathrop – Take up weight lifting to improve his gaylord time at SAMP. 3. Dan Nisler – Read a joke book. 4. Mary Schmidt – To stop doing all of Bill Jartz’s Facebook posts. Only so much can be said about his fabulous wife. 5. Tom Berkedal – Practice the tuba more. 6. John Mielke – Volunteer more in the community. 7. Mary Harp-Jirschele – Be part of a committee that talk and talk and talk and never get to a point of making a decision. 8. Jennifer Stephany – To go and eat at a restaurant that is not in downtown Appleton. 9. Tony Gonzalez – Lead the Community Center members in a flash mob. 10. Gail Popp – Improve her networking skills. 11. JoEllen Wollangk – Sit back, relax and enjoy retirement especially on Tuesdays. 12. Deb Wetter – Now that she has a new hip, to take dancing lessons that will be helpful at City council meetings.

Rotary Youth Exchange Updates

Today our Club’s 2013/2014 Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Ms. Florencia Prada will be arriving from Argentina for a year-long cultural exchange. “Flora” will be attending Appleton East High School. Rotary Short Term Exchange presents opportunities for students to advance their knowledge and world understanding by allowing them to exchange in a different country. Participants will live with host families in their selected land usually for 3-4 weeks in the summer under the sponsorship of their local Rotary Club. This short term program requires a reciprocity hosting of a student on the return of US student sent. There will be application details and a web-site link for any potential candidate and families to be sponsored by our club. Complete application packets are due in February. For more information and the application - http://www.summerexchange.org/