The men and women who serve in the U.S. military make many sacrifices for their country. Some come back with lost limbs. Some don’t come home at all.
Others come back with invisible wounds.
Often these invisible wounds take the form of mental health problems. For example, 30 percent of Vietnam War veterans are estimated to have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. And 11-20 percent of veterans of U.S. operations in Iraq have PTSD in a given year. Many veterans also experience addiction and homelessness.
These hardships contribute to the number of veterans who experience the criminal justice system.
An estimated 181,500 U.S. veterans were incarcerated in prisons and jails across the country in 2011-2012, accounting for 8 percent of the inmate population, according to a Bureau of Justice Statistics, or BJS, study. And according to the BJS, 55 percent of veterans in jail reported that a mental health professional told them they had a mental health disorder at some point in their lives.
One way to help veterans suffering from mental illness, addiction and homelessness is to make further use of veterans courts.
Some Illinois counties have established veterans courts, which provide alternatives to incarceration for Illinois veterans involved with the justice system.
In Cook County, for example, veterans who have pleaded guilty to their original charge and signed a treatment agreement with the court may be eligible to participate in Veterans Treatment Court. Men and women accepted into the program may receive inpatient or outpatient treatment appropriate for their condition, and keep in regular contact with a Veterans Affairs case manager, among other treatment options.
Programs like these treat the underlying causes of veterans’ criminal activity, making it less likely they will continue cycling through the criminal justice system.
A recent poll by Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Paul Simon Public Policy Institute shows 54 percent of Illinois registered voters support creating veterans’ courts.
That makes sense, as Illinoisans have a civic interest in ensuring that veterans get the assistance they need. And state taxpayers also have a direct interest in helping ex-offenders become rehabilitated – and not just thrown behind bars. Every time an ex-offender recidivates – or commits another crime – it costs taxpayers approximately $118,746.
But the greater cost is the loss of human potential that occurs when military men and women who commit crimes enter the vicious cycle of incarceration instead of getting treatment that could help get them back on track.
Increasing access to veterans courts would be an important step to fix that.