Veterans Treatment Courts: Providing Specialized Care to Those Who Served - Overview and Benefits

Veteran’s Treatment
Courts
The first Veterans Treatment Court was established
in Buffalo, New York in 2008.
This court was established by Judge Robert Russell.
He noticed that there was a rising number of veterans
in his treatment court dockets who were dealing with
unique substance abuse and mental health problems.
It was of the opinion that these veterans can achieve
benefit from specialized treatment court docket that
has been particularly developed for the specific
purpose of dealing with their dealing with their
particular needs and challenges.

Objective
A veterans Treatment Court provides
judicially supervised treatment to the
veterans who are involved in criminal justice
system.
At the same time, these courts also maintain
a balance between the need for ensuring
public safety and the need for treating a
veteran who is suffering from mental health
disorder or substance abuse.

The veteran treatment courts try to keep the
veterans out of the jail. Instead they try to
correct them with their VA benefits and
treatment for helping them integrate back in
the community.
The VTC's use rigorous treatment as well as
accountability for the veterans who are facing
incarceration.
Courts provide individualized treatment that
is focused on the trauma related within being
in the military.

Number of Veterans Returning
Since 2001, more than 2.5 million veterans
who was serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom
and also in Operation Enduring Freedom and
many of them were deployed more than once.
For a large number of these soldiers
returning home, it has been very difficult to
resume civilian life.
Coming from a dangerous, high-intensity
environment and resuming a life of civility
generally results in contact with criminal
justice system of several of these veterans.