VETS AND THE LAW: AMERICA’S SHAMEFUL MINORITY
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER
Troops, while serving, live under the UCMJ, the Uniform Code of Military Justice with a combination of judicial and non-judicial legal systems. Our soldiers are also under a command structure meant to afford them continual feedback on their career status and support them in every way.
Too often, this structure, meant to aid our military families, the people who secure our nation, fails, sometimes miserably. Often, however it works and is making improvements every day. Our national defense demands this and demands this system itself is accounted for.
At home, however, the military paycheck disappears, the job a veteran has left often goes out the window, the wife or husband has “hooked up” with “Jody or Joleen” and readjustment complicated by loss of self respect, feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness takes over.
Financial and family problems, anger, combat stress medicated with drugs and alcohol eventually head one direction: POLICE and JAIL
VETERANS COURTS
So far, 15 jurisdictions have set up special courts to deal with veterans. Probably more than 200,000 veterans a year are involved in some way with the criminal justice system from issues that range from domestic violence, DUI to more serious crimes.
These courts understand the special needs of veterans. So far, the primary issue has been returning veterans and drugs. Drug use for self medication or drug sales to replace lost income from jobs no longer saved by patriotic employers are much of the root cause.
Mixing combat experience, the trauma of deployments and readjustment to civilian life with a broken economy and a population that loves to “honor troops” as long as it can be done on TV or the internet, makes for stress.
With the lessons of WW2, Korea and Vietnam behind us, lessons showing tens of thousands of our best and brightest, some failing to readjust and some going plain old “outlaw,” a realistic view of what has to be done for veterans other than parades and “attaboys” is due.
Veterans courts are a part of that answer. The criminal justice system has, too long, been weighted against everyone but the rich and well connected. Those than serve their country in wartime are seldom of that ilk.
County eyes veterans’ court
By Mike Cronin
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Allegheny County judges hope to set up the state’s first court devoted to military veterans who get into trouble with the law.
Veterans court would provide options such as counseling and medical treatment — instead of jail time — for veterans who commit misdemeanors, said Common Pleas Judge Michael E. McCarthy, a county civil judge.
“This would help veterans who have suffered difficulties due to their military service,” said McCarthy, 58, who served as a Navy Seabee during the Vietnam War. Those difficulties could include post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol and drug addiction, he said.
Such alternative courts are aimed at nonviolent offenders whose violations stem from mental illness, substance abuse, or in the case of veterans, PTSD. Instead of incarceration, they offer treatment programs to tackle the underlying causes of criminal behavior.
Allegheny County set up a mental health court in 2001 that places mentally ill people charged with nonviolent crimes with community social services.
The rate of repeat offenders goes down when people participate in alternative courts, said Amy Kroll, director of justice-related services in the county Department of Human Services.
“Alternative courts give individuals a way to recover their lives,” Kroll said. “The answer is treatment, treatment and more treatment.”
A 2007 RAND Corp. study of the county mental health court showed that only 14 percent of participants committed a crime after going through the program. The recidivism rate for the general population of inmates is 67 percent, the report said.
Alternative courts can save taxpayers money, too. A 2003 National Institute of Justice study that compared a drug court in Multnomah County, Ore., to criminal adjudication showed the drug-court model saved the public more than $2,300 per year for each participant.
The VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System could provide care, if necessary, and fellow veterans would serve as mentors to those appearing before the court, McCarthy said.
“That way, rather than just be adjudicated, we can try to address the problem,” McCarthy said. “And veterans seem to respond to each other.”
Some of the mentors will come from the Veterans Leadership Program of Western Pennsylvania in the South Side.
“We’re going to call on some of those we’ve assisted through the years to come back and help those that need their help right now,” said Albert Mercer, the leadership program’s executive director.
Officials in Erie County, N.Y., started what they believe to be the nation’s first veterans court a year ago, said acting Erie County Judge Robert Russell. Others now exist in Anchorage, Alaska; Orange County, Calif.; and Tulsa, Okla.
“We took the approach that if we have a judicially oversighted treatment program, maybe we can change their behavior — get them clean and sober and become productive members of society instead of a burden on society,” Russell said.
It’s too early for any data to exist on the effectiveness of veterans courts, Russell said.
Karen Blackburn, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s coordinator for problem-solving courts in Harrisburg, visited Russell’s court in Buffalo with McCarthy. The Allegheny County program could serve as a statewide model, she said.
State Rep. Don Walko, D-North Side, said he requested a $25,000 state grant to fund a case manager for the veterans court “who will help them get into the right treatment programs.”
The first step is to set up a task force and determine a method to identify defendants who are veterans, said Common Pleas Judge John A. Zottola, a criminal judge who presides over the county’s mental health court. He said he hopes to have the program running by June.
Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.
Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.
Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.
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