Veterans courts are a type of specialty criminal court for military veterans who have been arrested. They are closely modeled after drug treatment and mental health courts. The aim of the courts is to rehabilitate military veterans using treatment and services to improve mental health, reduce substance misuse, and reduce future criminal recidivism. This article begins with a summary of justice involved military veterans and then provides a brief introduction to the veterans court model including key components, theoretical underpinnings, and a discussion of the impact of veterans courts on participants. The entry concludes with a short overview of the critiques of the veterans court model.
Military Veterans in the Criminal Justice System
Accurate estimates of the number of military veterans in the criminal justice system (i.e., arrested, on probation, and in jails or prisons) are difficult to obtain given inconsistent practices with regard to asking for veteran status within criminal justice settings and the varying approaches to data collection (e.g., self-reported veteran status vs. use of administrative records). Given the limitations, the best estimate available suggests that approximately 10% of people who are arrested and incarcerated in the United States are military veterans. Among veterans who have been arrested, many experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, have traumatic brain injury, struggle with substance use problems, or have co-occurring disorders. In fact, an estimated 70% of justice involved veterans have a substance use disorder. The vast majority of veterans will never be arrested or incarcerated. The veterans who do have contact with the criminal justice system, however, face significant and disproportionate risk of suicide and exacerbation of psychiatric and physical health symptoms during incarceration. Due to the risks faced by justice involved veterans and the prevalence of veterans within the criminal justice system, stakeholders supported the development and implementation of veterans courts, first established in 2004 in Anchorage, AK. Shortly after, Judge Robert Russell created a veterans court in Buffalo, NY, which is the model for veterans courts across the United States.
Veterans Court Model
Veterans courts, like other specialty courts, are based on the foundation of therapeutic jurisprudence, which postulates that contact with the criminal justice system has the potential to harm or help a person’s emotional, behavioral, and mental health. As a means to enhance the therapeutic impact of courts, specialty courts help participants by connecting them with treatment and services to improve mental health and/or substance misuse issues. In veterans court, participants live in the community and are required to take part in highly structured, intensive substance use and mental health treatment rather than serve time in prison. Participants are supervised by an interdisciplinary team of legal and mental health professionals including a judge, court administrators, lawyers, probation officers, community providers, and veteran justice outreach specialists. Veteran justice outreach specialists, employed through the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, are responsible for connecting veterans court participants to benefits, coordinating care, and p roviding case management services.
Participation in veterans court is voluntary. Potential participants can be referred by veteran justice outreach specialists, attorneys, judges, correctional staff, community providers, or self- referral. Eligibility varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction with regard to charges, military discharge status (i.e., whether a veteran received an honorable discharge), and combat exposure that will qualify an offender to participate. For example, some veterans courts will accept only veterans who are eligible for benefits and services through the Veterans Administration, while others restrict participation to veterans who experienced combat trauma. The veterans court team supervises court participants’ compliance with court orders and adherence to treatment through regular court hearings before the judge, random drug testing, weekly meetings with probation officers, and staff meetings. Veterans court participants take part in numerous services including individual and group mental health and substance use treatment, psychotropic treatments, 12-step and peer-run groups, vocational training, compensated work therapy, Moral Reconation Therapy, and housing programs. The duration of veterans court participation varies from court to court and participant success. Most programs are approximately 1–2 years in duration.
Although veterans courts are similar to drug treatment and mental health courts, there are three key differences. First, veterans courts intentionally promote and facilitate bonding and camaraderie between court participants by recognizing, referencing, and building on participants’ shared histories of military experience and the military culture. Second, veterans courts include a mentoring component; each veterans court participant is paired with a veteran mentor. The mentor offers friendship, emotional support, and guidance throughout court participation. Finally, veterans courts work closely with the Veterans Administration. Thus, veterans courts’ participants tend to have access to more resources than typical criminal defendants.
The Impact of Veterans Court
Research on the impact of participation in veterans courts on mental health, substance use, and criminal recidivism is limited. Like other research involving specialty courts, randomization to the court is often not possible. Therefore, discerning the impact of the specialty court and bias resulting from voluntary participation in court programming is challenging. Given this challenge, preliminary reports on veterans courts do show improvements in mental health including reductions in psychiatric symptoms and substance use during and following veterans court. It remains unclear if veterans court participation reduces future criminal offending among veterans.
A Critique of Veterans Court
Critics charge that veterans courts, like other specialized courts, give rise to due process concerns, as many jurisdictions require the waiver of rights (or a guilty plea) for defendants to participate. Coercive criminal procedure itself also risks tainting the therapeutic process; even though court personnel receive special training regarding post-traumatic stress disorder and veterans, they remain legal rather than mental health professionals and may impede treatment through well-intended but erroneous efforts to aid veterans. Further, some critics argue that veterans courts risk pathologizing veterans by reinforcing negative stereotypes. The implementation of veterans courts also gives rise to equity issues. To the extent that additional public expenditures yield improved outcomes, these courts raise questions about denying the forum to other defendants, especially those who have posttraumatic stress disorder, and who might be inclined to benefit most. Even among veterans otherwise eligible, some have charged that specialized courts tend to avoid defendants with serious offenses, opening up these courts to criticisms of creaming, that is, selecting clients likely to succeed and avoiding needy but more challenging cases.
References:
- Cartwright, T. (2011). To care for him who shall have borne the battle: The recent development of veterans treatment courts in America. Stanford Law and Policy Review, 22(1), 295–316.
- Finlay, A. K., Smelson, D., Sawh, L., McGuire, J., Rosenthal, J., Blue-Howells, J., . . . Harris, A. (2014). U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs veterans justice outreach program: Connecting justice-involved veterans with mental health and substance use disorder treatment. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 1–20. doi:10.1177/0887403414562601
- Justice for Vets. (2015). What is a veterans treatment court? Retrieved from http://www.justiceforvets.org/ what-is-a-veterans-treatment-court
- McCormick-Goodhart, M. A. (2013). Leaving no veteran behind: Policies and perspectives on combat trauma, veterans courts, and the rehabilitative approach to criminal behavior. Penn State Law Review, 117(3), 895–926.
- Winick, B. J. (2002). Therapeutic jurisprudence and problem solving courts. Fordham Urban Law Journal, 30(3), 1055–1090.