Adult diversion court gets support of commissioners to continue
GILLETTE — The adult diversion court pilot project in Campbell County will continue for at least another year.
Chad Beeman, director of the Campbell County Adult Treatment Courts, told Campbell County Commissioners last week that his advisory board had voted 8-1 to recommend that the treatment courts pull out of the adult diversion court pilot project.
But the commissioners were unanimous in their support of continuing the project for another year.
As the newest track of the Campbell County Adult Treatment Courts, the adult diversion court has the goal of treating people in Campbell County who wouldn’t be involved with the criminal justice system if it weren’t for their mental health. In the program, people can have their charges dismissed if they can complete it.
It is the result of collaboration between the state and local agencies, and is set to operate through Jan. 2, 2026. Cheyenne and Casper both have similar programs that they recently started.
The board’s vote to step away from the program, Beeman said, was “based off fiscal responsibility.”
“They see low numbers and high cost,” he said.
In the program’s first year, three people were accepted into the program, and one of those three graduated. The other two did not finish. Right now, there are two people going through the program.
That one graduate, however, had spent more than 500 days in jail in the five years leading up to the graduate’s participation in the program, Beeman said. It costs about $75,000 to house someone in jail that long, Beeman said, and close to $20,000 was spent on this one graduate.
Beeman said the first year of the project has had its ups and downs, and that the team needs “some time to work out those kinks.”
“We are trying to learn what population we can meet with the resources we have,” he said. “We were trying to take on a little more serious cases than we were equipped to handle.”
District Judge Matthew Castano, who has become involved in the project in recent months and has worked with some of the other treatment courts here in Campbell County, said this program faces a particular challenge with its participants that other treatment courts don’t have.
“The initial intake of getting somebody in, engaged and in the program is a lot harder with this cohort that has serious mental illness, than it is even with addicts,” Castano said.
“We don’t necessarily have everything we need,” Beeman said. “I think we’re doing a pretty good job with what we have, and I can see it growing. I think we need some more time.”
Both Beeman and Castano said the biggest hurdle is getting these people stabilized. There’s no place in Campbell County for them to do that.
“For stabilization, they have to leave the community and then return to the community,” Beeman said. “It’s not fair to those other communities either to take on our residents to stabilize them.”
“It may not be surprising when you tell someone who has a serious mental illness and is in the middle of crisis and is unmedicated to go down to the VOA and make an appointment, your return rate’s pretty low on that,” Castano said. “We put in place some things to improve that.”
Commissioner Kelley McCreery said while he wouldn’t support building a facility at this time, given that it is just a pilot project, he’d be in favor of some short-term funding, “but whatever you need to get through this thing for another year.”
He added that the state should be willing to kick in more funding.
“Do you want the taxpayers of Campbell County to fund this whole thing and make this thing a success so the state can sit there and say, ‘Wow, look at what we did?’ Or do you want to sit back, take a look at this, and see who all is willing to ante up?” McCreery asked.
“I thought we could handle it for now under our current budget. We probably still can,” Beeman said. “But eventually it will become more burdensome on our budget.”
All five of the commissioners supported Beeman sticking with the program for another year.
“I don’t want to see this thing completely end,” McCreery said. “Let’s give this thing another chance. If you’re willing to do that.”
“I’d rather see us follow through, find what works, what doesn’t,” Commissioner Scott Clem said. “Perhaps we can actually make this thing more feasible.”
And Commissioner Jim Ford said this program aims to help some of the “most vulnerable” of county residents.
“They’ve got the most to lose and the most to gain,” he said. “We’ve got an opportunity to help them, I’d like to continue doing that.”
Castano said the hope is that Gillette, Casper and Cheyenne go through their pilot projects, and while taking slightly different paths, they can “start feeding off each other” to find out what works.
Beeman said there’s a chance that an agreement could be written up with facilities in other communities to help stabilize Campbell County’s adult diversion participants. He added that the funding for this could be brought to the state as part of a budget request.
Although the program has not been a runaway success right off the bat, Beeman said he still believes it could do some good if it’s given some additional time.
“It’s part of our job,” Beeman said. “We’re already getting paid to be here, it’s taking on an extra population to try to meet the need for our community. It’s not easy work.”
This story was published on May 28, 2025.