Veteran courts seek rehabilitation

Bianca Roseboro

Sunday, November 14, 2010

The veterans courts are part of local trial court systems, and they usually deal with lesser offenses in which the veteran has pleaded guilty and is also dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, drug addiction, alcoholism or mental-health issues. With assistance from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the courts offer guidance and case management to help keep convicted veterans out of jail, in exchange for their participation in an intensive probation program.

Judge Wendy Lindley has presided over these veterans courts and refers to the process as "therapeutic justice." The Veterans Affairs agency calls it part of a "veteran justice outreach initiative," which seeks to avoid "the unnecessary criminalization of mental illness and extended incarceration" of veterans. The idea is to rehabilitate offenders with help from medical and social services.

As we learned during Casey's lecture, it is more economically appealing to rehabilitate an offender than to keep them incarcerated. A figure we reviewed was that it cost ten times as much to keep a person incarcerated than to educate, rehabilitate, and create opportunities for them in the civilian world. State institutions have increased their spending on corrections by 300 percent. These funds outpace such services as transportation and education in communities. I believe the money is better utilized in programs such as the veterans courts. Through these types of institutions, we are not only giving these former military a chance to become a stand-up citizen in society, we are helping to create a educated and competent member of society. Judge Lindley speaks on this: “I think that we have an ethical and moral obligation to try to restore these human beings to who they were before they were brave enough to volunteer and go and try to protect the rights that you and I enjoy every day.”

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/10/28/california.veterans.courts/index.html?iref=allsearch