Prosecutor candidate discusses local crime, drug issues

HILLSDALE — Jamie Wisniewski, a 2008 graduate of North-Adams Jerome High School, is seeking to take over the Hillsdale County Prosecutor’s Office from long-serving Prosecutor Neal Brady, who is retiring after more than two decades of service.

Wisniewski worked in family law before joining the Hillsdale County Prosecutor’s Office in 2017, where she initially was tasked with running the abuse/neglect docket before taking on more responsibilities as chief assistant prosecutor.

She announced her campaign at the 2023 Hillsdale County Fair parade and has since been actively working to establish her campaign platform.

In an interview with The Hillsdale Daily News regarding her candidacy, Wisniewski said one of the greatest obstacles the county faces are “generational issues” and that victims of crimes are sometimes unwilling to speak about what happened to them.

“I think one of the biggest issues that I see, having grown up here and then now coming back and working in our community, is some of these problems are generational,” Wisniewski said. “Particularly with criminal sexual conduct cases that I see a lot of because I spend a lot of time prosecuting those. Sometimes this behavior in those families has been going on for two or three generations. I know people this has happened to back when they were a kid or to their parents when they were a kid and the family just sort of just dealt with it.

“Unfortunately that person was allowed to go on and abuse more kids in the family system and then it gets passed to the next generation. And then by the time they get to my case docket we might be three generations in of children who were sexually abused.”

Although some people now seek help, Wisniewski said others' unwillingness to talk or report crimes — or even come to court — can sometimes impede criminal justice.

Addressing the drug epidemic that has long vexed Hillsdale County, in particular with methamphetamine abuse, Wisniewski said it's a complex and multi-faceted problem that will require a long-term strategy with appropriate resources to have the best impact on mitigating the issue.

“We are thankful to have some presence from the Region of Irish Hills Narcotics Office in our county working here,” Wisniewski said. “They're actively taking on cases so that certainly helps to clean things up.”

Wisniewski said private citizens can be the biggest asset by simply speaking up when they see something by reporting it.

“So many times people pass by and they say, 'Well, I don't want to get involved, that's not my business,'” Wisniewski said. “It’s better to call the police and have it be nothing than to say nothing and something bad has happened and then we don't have a witness to it.”

Following up on reporting crimes, Wisniewski caveated her message by adding that witnesses should follow through with the criminal justice system and work with the prosecutor’s office by showing up to court and testifying if needed.

“I know it's a huge inconvenience for people sometimes to come to court because they have to take time out of their days, and I know it's a huge frustration for them because they don't think anything's happening,” Wisniewski said. “We have to have people who come to court who want to talk about these things and do a good service to their community by speaking up and being willing to participate in that process.”

Regarding the drug problem and grip on Hillsdale County, Wisniewski said a lot of drug users have underlying mental health issues that have often gone untreated.

“I've seen it time and time again,” Wisniewski said. “They've got a mental health issue that's untreated for one reason or another and they've switched to using substances and then it just kind of spirals from there.”

Substance abuse itself is a difficult issue to address, and working with the recently established drug courts, resources are available, including mental health resources, Wisniewski said. But people have to want the help for themselves.

And for those trafficking narcotics into Hillsdale County, fueling crime cycles, Wisniewski believes a long-term strategy with proper resources is needed.

“I do think that there are some bigger players in the community,” Wisniewski said. “It's just a matter of having the resources to put towards actually ferreting them out because they might not be the person you think they are.”

Oftentimes, these “bigger fish” are harder to catch because they have middle men — street level dealers who are often addicts themselves caught in a cycle of selling to support their own habits.

“We’ve got to have the resources to put towards this,” Wisniewski said. “They're in the process of trying to do these things but it takes some time to do it. I think too that the public doesn't always know kind of what's going on behind the scenes with some of this stuff because those cases do take a longer time to build but certainly there are people from outside our community that are filtering drugs into our community. That's true. That's always been true.”

If elected to replace Brady, Wisniewski intends to continue advocating for these resources in addition to cooperating with programs and resources put in place to pull residents from the grips of substance abuse.

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“I think we've seen a really great push for some reforms in how we're handling some of these situations,” Wisniewski said. “Like we've got the veterans track now that's addressing some of the specific issues that veterans are facing when they're coming home and then they get wrapped up in the law.

“I'm hoping that we can continue to work with those programs more and more and maybe make some lasting changes for some of these individuals that maybe before weren't getting some of the specialized assistance that they needed. But on the other hand, I also think that there are some individuals unfortunately we just keep seeing kind of do the same things over and over again. And those ones either can't accept or don't want the help and unfortunately there's sort of only one path for them.”

As of Nov. 6, no other candidate has announced their intent to seek election to the prosecutor’s office.

— Contact Reporter Corey Murray at cmurray@hillsdale.net or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @cmurrayHDN.

This article originally appeared on Hillsdale Daily News: Prosecutor candidate discusses local crime, drug issues