Manitowoc County District Attorney Jacalyn LaBre says that Manitowoc County is 4.71 prosecutors short for what they need. She tells SeehaferNews.com that the state as a whole has not seen a significant addition of prosecutors in over 20 years. LaBre says the DA’s association, along with other agencies, have been working with the state legislature and the Governor’s office to address the shortfall.
Sixty additional positions were approved in the recent budget however, Governor Evers line-item veto those allocations. The DA’s Office is currently working with the State Department of Administration and applied for some of them to be approved for Manitowoc County.
LaBre says help is needed in two major areas. The first is in the drug court. LaBre explained that they are “connected with the Sheboygan Veteran’s Court and there are some other diversion programs we would like to start up or expand, and all of that takes a significant amount of prosecution time.”
The second is meeting and spending more time with victims.”There are many times when I feel like we should have more times for the victims,” LaBre stated. “For a lot of them, this is the only time they have been in criminal court.”
The local prosecutor says the drug problem is “getting out of control” with cases rising at “alarming rates”. She adds with how addicting and destructive methamphetamine is “we need to attack and get a handle on and push it out of our community.”
