Veteran’s Treatment Courts: will More be Necessary Now that the 20-Year War on Terror has Concluded for US Soldiers?

Abstract

Senator John Kerry noted that September 11th was the worst day that we, as a nation, had ever seen; however, it served to unite us. For the families of the 2,977 victims, it was a day of immeasurable and unimaginable loss. For first responders, it was a living nightmare they willingly chose to return to for days, weeks, and months following the attacks so that the families impacted could have some measure of closure. Many of these experienced subsequent physical and mental health illnesses due to what they were exposed to. For others, it was a call to arms. A call to action and to begin serving something bigger than themselves. It was a call to enlist in the US military. It is reported that immediately following the September 11th attacks, over 180,000 American citizens enlisted in active-duty military with some claiming the events of 9/11 were the driving force behind their decision. The military reported that 1 year after 9/11 there were just over 1.4 million active-duty military personnel in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force combined. Since the beginning of the American military involvement in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in 2001, it is estimated that approximately 1.9 US military personnel were deployed in 3 million missions lasting at least 30 days. Over 7,000 servicemembers have been killed, in post-9/11 wars, with thousands more sustaining critical life-changing injuries, including loss of limbs, traumatic brain injuries and the invisible injuries of posttraumatic stress disorder. This work consists of a content analysis, specifically focusing on the establishment and ongoing need of Veteran’s Treatment Courts (VTC), a specialty court established in 2008, as a direct response to a growing number of veterans, appearing on court dockets, who were addicted to drugs, alcohol, or suffering from undiagnosed/untreated mental illness due to exposure to traumatic events while on military deployment. Today there are 400 VTC across the country, but more of these courts and significantly more funding and resources are needed to address the invisible wounds and impact of a 20-year war. This article examines the literature in existence related to VTCs, including their missions, strategies, and recidivism success rates. It also examines where these VTCs are in relation to US military installations that experienced deployments, and the resources that are available and accessible to those veterans who agree to enter these diversion programs. Finally, it discusses any noted gaps in where VTCs should be and currently are not as well as the potential for deleterious outcomes for veterans who have honorably served their country and have either fallen through the system’s cracks or live in an underserved area of the country. These are wounded warriors that, absent being exposed to traumatic events in a war zone, may never have entered the criminal justice system.