Veterans’ court follows the lead of drug courts
Veterans in this country are overrepresented when it comes to substance abuse, driving under the influence, unemployment, homelessness, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other psychological problems. Tragically, studies also show that veterans are twice as likely as the general population to commit suicide.
When Judge Robert Russell and his staff in Buffalo, N.Y., noted 300 veterans coming through their court system last year, they knew something was going on. They suspected the illegal behaviors might be linked to mental health problems related to the veterans’ military experiences. “We realized that one in five returning veterans experience symptoms related to PTSD, major depression and traumatic brain injuries,” Russell said in an interview on National Public Radio (NPR). “We wanted to be participatory rather than reactionary.”
For Russell, participation meant establishing a veterans’ treatment court, fashioned after the more than 2,000 drug courts and about 200 mental health courts in the United States. In contrast to traditional courts where court involvement generally ends when an offender is sentenced if found guilty, these alternative courts offer qualified participants an opportunity to participate in court-supervised, community-based treatment in lieu of typical criminal sanctions.
Studies on drug courts have found a lower post-program criminal recidivism rate and a bigger cost savings than traditional court approaches. In the best of these courts, all concerned (judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, law enforcement, probation officers, substance abuse and mental health treatment specialists, vocational experts, community leaders, and families) work together toward a holistic outcome that focuses on recovery rather than incarceration.
Defendants in Russell’s veterans’ court have generally committed non-violent offenses such as driving while intoxicated, drug possession or theft, although he has also dealt with domestic violence or bar fight cases. Veterans who participate must stay clean and sober, get mental health or addiction counseling, find jobs, and get their lives back on track. The court meets with the defendants weekly at first and then monthly, usually for a year or more. If participants make enough progress, their charges are reduced or their cases are dismissed. If they fail to comply, they risk facing their original criminal charges and could be sentenced to jail time.
One integral component in Russell’s court is the teaming of each veteran offender with a volunteer veteran mentor who adds additional support and encourages the defendant to make all meetings and follow his or her treatment plan.
The concept of a veterans’ court makes good sense to Don Elverd, a Hazelden psychologist and Vietnam combat vet who works extensively with troubled vets. “Our soldiers train and train and train to operate on missions, but does anyone train them to go back to civilian life when they’re discharged? It takes two to three years–sometimes more–for veterans to settle down and shake the things they’ve experienced out of their heads,” he said.
Elverd said the transition from military to civilian life is difficult and that veterans often isolate themselves or turn to alcohol or other drugs to try to cope with what they experienced as soldiers. He said that while we can see substance abuse, domestic problems, anxiety disorders, depression, or problems with the law, a vet’s primary problem–PTSD–can be harder to detect.
Elverd sees the value of vets supporting vets and urges troubled soldiers to talk with other soldiers as they do in Buffalo’s veterans’ court. Vietnam vets who are familiar with PTSD and related problems have proven to be a valuable resource for Iraq vets.
Our vets are in trouble, yet a 2007 Pentagon task force warned that the military health care system is overburdened and lacks sufficient resources to meet the needs of troops suffering from PTSD and other psychological problems. VA hospitals and clinics were often found to be understaffed and lacking properly trained workers to provide appropriate screening for mental health problems, putting vets at increased risk of suicide. Vets courts help fill the gap in services, as do programs like Vets4Vets, the Soldiers Project, Give an Hour (where mental health professionals provide free counseling to veterans and their families), or the new VA suicide hotline (1-800-273-TALK) that received 55,000 calls in its first year and averted 1,221 veteran suicides.
As Russell said in the NPR interview, “Many vets have a warrior mentality and think getting help is weak. We are working to change that paradigm and try to convince them that it takes the strength of a warrior to ask for help.”
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