Lake County to establish special court for veterans

Lake County officials say they are close to setting up their third special court program to serve a particular type of nonviolent offender and the problems that bring those people into the justice system.

Circuit Judge John Phillips said he believes a veterans treatment court, which will bundle diverse treatment and other social services in an attempt to address the underlying cause of crime in people who have been in the military, should be up and running by late spring.

Phillips said the goal of the vet court system, just as the current drug and mental health court systems, will be to divert people away from the traditional “revolving door” of criminal behavior caused by untreated problems.

“And, as worthy as the addicts who come into drug court and the people in need of mental health treatment in our other program are of our attention, those that we will be reaching out to in veterans court have earned what we will be trying to do for them,” said Phillips, a military veteran.

“We owe these people a chance to change their lives and fix their problems just because of what they have done for us.”

Sadly, military veterans are not strangers to the criminal justice system.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2007 there were 703,000 military veterans serving some sort of sentence for criminal behavior, or in jail awaiting trial.

Getting a start in Buffalo, N.Y., in 2007, veterans courts now exist in 46 jurisdictions in 22 states, according to the National Association of Drug Court Professionals.

In Illinois, there are programs in Madison County and Cook County, where a spokesman said plans are in the works to open the sixth branch of the operation in March.

“There has not been a downside to our experience with veterans court,” said Mark Kammerer, coordinator for alternative prosecutions and sentencings for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.

“We see positive results in getting people to deal with their addictions and other problems, we reduce the rate of recidivism and time spent in jail and we save money for the taxpayers,” Kammerer added.

The typical model used in all treatment courts has nonviolent offenders pleading guilty to the crimes they are charged with and being placed on a fixed period of probation.

A team of service providers plugs the offender into whatever counseling, treatment, job training or other program in a regimen designed specifically for each individual’s need.

Upon successful completion of the program, which is punctuated by intensive monitoring and rigid discipline, offenders can be given a chance to have their convictions removed from their records.

Kammerer said the Cook County program, which started in February 2009, has admitted a total of 118 veteran participants and 29 have already graduated successfully in advance of the standard two-year probation everyone receives initially.

“People with prior military service can, in many cases, do better in programs such as these than their non-veteran counterparts,” he said. “They already have experience with functioning in a structured environment with high levels of expectations.”

Vet court is an effective crime-fighting tool, as well as a rehabilitative process, Kammerer said.

The 118 vets enrolled in the Cook County program had a total of 185 felony arrests in the one year before starting the program, he said. Since the first class of veterans court started in 2009, there have been a total of four new felony arrests of all the participants.

Reduced jail time for people who are not being arrested as frequently as in the past has resulted in a savings of $850,000 per year, Kammerer said.

Michael Peck, superintendent of the Lake County Veterans Assistance Commission, said he believes the veterans courts will work for the participants who want it to work.

“It is kind of a carrot and stick approach, because if people are not willing to go through the treatment programs they are going to go back to the regular court system and probably wind up in prison,” Peck said.

“But it is going to provide a second chance for people who have earned one because they were willing to continue,” he added. “And if they want to turn their lives around, this program will help them do it.”

While drug and mental health court participants are generally offered rehabilitation programs offered by state and local providers, veterans seeking similar help have a much larger menu of options through the federal Department of Veterans Affairs.

The VA is a strong supporter of vet court programs, a VA official in Chicago said, and can offer services ranging from inpatient drug and mental health treatment to job training skills on a much larger scale than local providers.

“We see the veteran courts as a homelessness prevention project, as well as a criminal justice project,” said Eugene Herskovic, Vision 12 Network Homelessness Coordinator for the VA. “We have the resources to assist the courts with substance abuse and mental health issues, as well as programs geared to getting people off the street and into stable environments.”

Phillips said a committee of court professionals and services providers meets regularly to iron out the final design of the program to be started in Lake County.

“We are addressing issues such as the size of what we start out with, what the exact rules will be and other matters,” Phillips said. “But the probation department is already screening for people with military service who would fit the general criteria, so I really believe we will have a veterans court program in place and functioning soon.”