Veteran’s Courts address issues that are unique to folks with a Military background, dispensing compassion in equal measure with justice. They seem to be spreading like wildfire and I for one, think they’re a fantastic idea! This is a great explanation by Doug McMurdo on the Daily Miner website. ~Bill
by Doug McMurdo, Miner Staff Reporter
Kingman considers adopting Veterans Court model
Repeat offenses can drop dramatically
KINGMAN – When Lake Havasu City Consolidated Court Judge Mitch Kalauli and Mayor Mark Nexsen started Mohave County’s first veterans court last year, neither man realized so many veterans would participate.
The success led Kingman Mayor Richard Anderson and City Manager John Dougherty to visit Kalauli’s court with thoughts of establishing one here.
Kalauli at Tuesday’s City Council meeting explained the court for troubled veterans and Anderson and members of the Council appeared receptive to the idea.
Kalauli pointed out 900,000 veterans suffer with post-traumatic stress disorder. Ten percent are in prison and a large percentage is homeless. About 18 a day commit suicide.
With numbers like that, Kalauli said it could be difficult for veterans to re-engage with society when they return home from the battlefield.
“They’re taught to address a problem immediately,” he said. “In basic they’re trained to kill, to be as hard as they need to be to get the job done.”
But they aren’t taught how to set that training aside when they no longer wear the uniform.
The first attempt to address veterans who landed in legal hot water was drug court, but Kalauli said the intensive program works better for non-vets than veterans.
All that changed when Buffalo, N.Y., City Court Judge Robert Russell founded the first veterans court in the nation in 2008, 13 years after he founded drug court.
Russell’s idea, said Kalauli, stemmed from his frustration with what he considered a failed attempt to help veterans: “He thought, maybe we’re not addressing the issue.”
Since that first veterans court, more than 200 have been established in the nation. Lake Havasu City is home to the first rural veterans court in Arizona.
While the vast majority of the more than 27,000 veterans living in Mohave County never wind up in front of a judge, some do and they keep coming back.
There’s a reason why veterans courts are spreading across the country. They work.
Kalauli said the recidivism rate – the percentage of people who repeatedly get into trouble – for regular court is a staggering 70 to 85 percent. The rate for drug and DUI courts drop down to between 30 and 50 percent. Veterans courts, on the other hand, have a recidivism rate of about 10 percent. – complete article –
