Abstract
Treatment courts, also known as problem-solving courts, offer an alternative to incarceration in the form of mandated individualized treatment. Veterans Treatment Courts (VTCs) emphasize the criminal justice goal of sustainable rehabilitation rather than mere incarceration, seeking to restore the Veteran as a productive member of society instead of taking the costly step of removing the Veteran from society through imprisonment. In this chapter, we discuss Veterans Treatment Courts (VTCs), the fastest-growing variety of specialized court in the United States (Baldwin and Brooke, Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 58:1–29, 2019). Today, there are at least 461 operational VTCs and Veterans dockets within drug, mental health, or criminal courts. This chapter builds on this book’s important body of work and presents to you what is known about VTC participant characteristics, delves into the origins and history of VTCs and other problem-solving courts, reviews known outcomes of VTCs, and presents the complications and criticism that arise in the delivery of the VTC model around the United States.
“The court reflects the structure of a military unit: The judge becomes the commanding officer; the volunteer Veteran mentors act as fire team leaders; the court team becomes the company staff; and the Veteran defendants become the troops”
—Bryan Lett, Reporter for Disabled American Veterans (DAV), April 11, 2017
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Abbreviations
- ACLU:
-
American Civil Liberties Union
- AUDIT:
-
Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test
- DAST:
-
Drug Abuse Screening Test
- DAV:
-
Disabled American Veterans
- DoD:
-
Department of Defense
- DWI:
-
Driving while intoxicated
- IOM:
-
Institute of Medicine
- MOAS:
-
Modified Overt Aggression Scale
- NADCP:
-
National Association of Drug Court Professionals
- NIJ:
-
National Institute of Justice
- OEF:
-
Operation Enduring Freedom
- OIF:
-
Operation Iraqi Freedom
- PCL:
-
PTSD Checklist
- PHQ:
-
Patient Health Questionnaire
- PTSD:
-
Posttraumatic stress disorder
- SDVTRC:
-
San Diego, California, Veterans Treatment Review Calendar
- U.S.:
-
United States
- VA:
-
Department of Veterans Affairs
- VJO:
-
Veterans Justice Outreach
- VTC:
-
Veterans Treatment Court
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McCall, J.D., Pomerance, B. (2019). Veterans Treatment Courts. In: Tsai, J., Seamone, E. (eds) Intersections between Mental Health and Law among Veterans. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31664-8_5
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