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  • publication cover image for Law Enforcement Officers Respecting Service, Restoring Honor for Vets in Crisis
    Accession Number
    033091
    This white paper is based on a series of interviews, buttressed by personal observations, of key players in several jurisdictions where law enforcement officers, Veteran Justice Outreach Specialists from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and community-based agency representatives collaborate to implement approaches to de-escalate veterans in crisis in our communities.
  • cover of Barracks Behind Bars publication
    Accession Number
    033065

    The purpose of Veterans Treatment Courts is to offer vets with a substance use problem and/or diagnosis of a mental health issue an opportunity to avail themselves of treatment-oriented justice. Based on anecdotal evidence and an increasing accretion of data from the field-in many of the projects funded by the National Institute of Corrections and the Bureau of Justice Assistance-these courts appear to be achieving their goal. They are helping worthy individuals find a degree of redemption while paying their debt to society. They are restoring family relationships, strengthening communities, cutting rates of recidivism and, hence, making communities safer.

    But what of those veterans who are incarcerated, serving a sentence, or awaiting trial or other resolution of the charges against them?

  • document cover for Veterans Treatment Courts: A Second Chance for Vets Who Have Lost Their Way
    Accession Number
    030018

    "This white paper is based on a series of interviews, buttressed by personal observations, of key players in half a dozen jurisdictions where Veterans Treatment Courts have been operating with marked success. Neither graphs nor charts nor a plethora of statistics are employed to illustrate the protocols and practices of these therapeutic courts. Instead, proponents and practitioners intimately involved in the founding and operation of these courts relate how they are “the right thing to do” for combat veterans who commit certain crimes that are associated with the lingering legacy of their wartime experiences.

  • document cover for Veterans Treatment Courts: A Second Chance for Vets Who Have Lost Their Way [Internet Broadcast]
    Accession Number
    029869

    This program on justice-involved veterans, highlights the lifesaving role being played by veterans treatment courts (VTCs) across the country.

    From WWII through the continuing global war on terror, there are approximately 21.5 million veterans in the U.S. today. So many of these men, and increasingly women, return home damaged mentally and physically from their time in service. These wounds often contribute to their involvement in the criminal justice system. As a result, veterans are overrepresented in our jails and prisons.

    For these justice-involved vets, Veterans Treatment Courts are providing a pathway to recovery so that they can be restored to functioning and contributing members of society.