Court officials are beginning to recognize a need to treat these soldiers and veterans suf-fering from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury before they get caught up in a cycle of crime.
A coalition of legal officials and advocates for veterans in Maricopa County, Ariz., is con-sidering setting up a special court that would provide vets with the help they need to cope. Buffalo, N.Y., and Orange County, Calif., have launched similar specialty courts.
The courts’ goal: Keeping the troubled vets out of the criminal justice cycle. That could mean identifying veterans early in the system, connecting them to services the government already provides and linking the vets to a support network.
“One of the things that offended me is seeing a veteran who is self-medicating with alcohol or marijuana or meth and going to court and standing side-by-side with some gangbanger or lifetime criminal and being treated the same as them,” said Billy Little, an attorney and re-tired Air Force colonel. “I thought they deserved better than that.”
Many cities today have diversion programs that are designed to keep people in need of help — often alcoholics or drug addicts — out of the courts, provided they receive the treat-ment that they need.
With the growing number of combat vets suffering from PTSD, TBI or depression — one in three, according to the Rand Corp. in what it called a “conservative estimate” — it makes a lot of sense to create special courts for folks with these disorders. And it’s only fair to help these vets get the treatment they deserve — rather than a prison term.