‘Skipping the middleman’: Defendants faced shifting demands in Outagamie County judge’s one-man drug court

Drug and alcohol courts allow defendants to minimize punishment if they remain sober, receive treatment for substance abuse and participate in a structured program. Outagamie County Circuit Judge Vincent Biskupic created a similar arrangement with defendants with a key difference: The defendants were answerable only to Biskupic, who set no date for the supervision to end. The atypical arrangement meant longer punishments for some who failed to meet shifting demands.

Reporting by Mario Koran, Phoebe Petrovic, Madeline Fuerstenberg and Jack Kelly / Wisconsin Watch and WPR. This piece was produced for the NEW News Lab, a local news collaboration in Northeast Wisconsin. Story originally published on Aug. 28, 2021.