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Lubbock County creating specialty court for veterans

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal - 7/28/2019

Lubbock County is creating a veterans treatment court, after years of insistence.

The veterans court would be a specialty court charged with trying cases for some offenses involving veterans, where, instead of sending a veteran to prison, he or she would be required by the court to attend counseling and support groups related to the charges, and have regular court appearances to track the progress. Upon completion of the program, the charges would be dismissed.It would only involve minor offenses, although many of the details are still being fleshed out. Advocates have made clear it's not a "get out of jail free" court. It's meant to give veterans having difficulty transitioning into civil life the help they need, and not trapping them in a judicial spiral while ignoring the root problem.

Several officials from Lubbock County traveled to Kaufman County a few weeks ago to tour its veterans treatment court, and they'll be visiting a few other counties with the specialty court for veterans before it's decided how it gets implemented in Lubbock. The Lubbock District Attorney's Office said it can't comment on such details as exactly who will be allowed in the specialty court and the types of cases it'll see, but the desire to create the court is there.

It's a decision for the district attorney, and Lubbock County DA Sunshine Stanek's office says the new DA is in favor of it. Lubbock County has other specialty courts, such as the DWI Court and the re-entry court, also known as Freedom Court.

With the DA's support, County Judge Curtis Parrish said during the county's budget hearings that the county will likely vote on a resolution establishing the court possibly as soon as the next meeting in August.

"I think we all walked away (from visiting Kaufman County) with a very good idea that we need this here in Lubbock," Parrish said. "By establishing the court, then we'll have the ability to go get the funding and put the team together -- because it's a team effort. It's not just the judge, but it's the the district attorney, the public defender, the probation office, it's psychologists and it's community. Everybody comes together for this."

Specialty courts see a probationer's original offense as a symptom of their addiction. As a result, court sessions, which are held about twice a month, have more of an atmosphere of a peer-support meeting than an official court proceeding. Judges often step down from the bench and hand out sobriety chips and offer praise and encouragement to probationers who do well and stay clean. The specialty court's consistent monitoring can also reveal other needs, such as mental health issues, a probationer may need to address in order to successfully complete the program.

"We're really good at these specialty courts," Parrish said. "This will be another specialty court that will focus specifically on veterans, especially those that are recently returning from combat that are having some reentry issues. Those come up in drug and alcohol abuse, and getting them into what we call pretrial diversion to get them to turn their lives around."Ashley Davis, assistant criminal district attorney, said the veterans court will focus on people who have drug issues, alcohol issues, or mental health issues related to their military service. If any types of abuse or sexual charges will be eligible for treatment in the specialty court hasn't been determined.

"It's in the works right now," Davis said. "We're looking into how other veterans courts are set up in other counties, we want to mirror something that's working."

Dave Lewis is the director of the Strategic Studies graduate program at Texas Tech. The retired colonel in the United States Air Force has been working to get this veterans treatment court set up for years. The goal, he said, is to break the spiral of abuse and incarceration by treating the root issues leading to a veteran's legal troubles. Lewis said some veterans don't have a problem when they get home, but some do. And the ones who do tend to take to substances, and once that happens they tend to find themselves in the judicial system.

Rather than have that happen, Lewis wants to see the veterans have another shot, and this time with more help. He said the country does a good job at training soldiers for war, but not untraining them when they get home. There are resources like VetStar and the VA available for veterans, but Lewis said there's just some who aren't seeking help until they hit the bottom, and those veterans can't be ignored.

"If we're not careful, we turn our backs, and what do those veterans do? A lot of substance abuse which often leads to justice involvement," Lewis said. "They sharpen their criminal skills while they're in prison, come back better criminals and then it's a cycle. We break the cycle by keeping them out of the state jails to begin with. But again, it's not a get-out-of-jail-free card, I can't stress that enough."

Specialty court probationers, aside from having to comply with standard community supervision requirements such as maintaining or regularly seeking employment and reporting to their probation officer, have a higher drug testing rates. They are also required to regularly attend peer support meetings, such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous, and turn in attendance paperwork.

Lewis said there is a strong veteran-to-veteran component to the treatment. He said there will be veteran mentors who've been through the process themselves to help struggling veterans.

And when there's a judge looking them in the eye, Lewis thinks there's a better chance for the veterans to respond.The goal isn't just to keep them out of jail, it's to get them help.Greg Gittner, director of VetStar, echoed that need. Gittner said about two veterans get arrested a day in Lubbock County. Looking over the veterans arrested in Lubbock County in the past week, about 14, more than half were for issues the specialty court is hoping to address: drugs and alcohol.

Gittner said statistics show about one in 20 veterans has a difficult time adjusting to civilian life after their service, whether dealing with PTSD or other mental health issues, and what Gittner doesn't want is for those citizens to end up in jail due to repeated offenses for things he believes can be treated. And some veterans refuse treatment, but after say several DWI's and the options are jail time or treatment, Gittner said this treatment court can provide help that had previously been refused.

Having a judge who knows the issues, veteran mentors who understand what the veteran is going through, and the structure of the court meetings, Gittner said, aims to help veterans get their lives back without a criminal record following them the rest of their lives.

"Part of the veterans treatment court is, OK, let's put you into therapy and maybe get rid of the anger issues that you have, or other issues," said Gittner. "Let's see what we can do to make you whole. You'll find the veterans court is more stringent than other courts. We'll talk to them face to face, because their goal wasn't to get out of the military and be in lockup for public intoxication. We'll figure out what went wrong."

Lewis said the county isn't trying to reinvent the wheel, rather there are hundreds of treatment courts in the country and dozens in the state.

Gittner said there are about 21,000 veterans living in Lubbock County, and many more in the area.

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(c)2019 the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (Lubbock, Texas)

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