Pausing in the wake of rapid adoption: A call to critically examine the veterans treatment court concept

Worthy of Justice: A Veterans Treatment Court in Practice

“…As VTCs proliferate, scholars have begun to question the assumptions underlying their “rapid expansion” (Baldwin and Brooke ). Easterly () points out that VTCs are created where there are judicial actors who are familiar with veterans and, to a lesser extent, where there are Veterans Administration (VA) outpatient health centers Most notably, Baldwin and Brooke point out that VTCs are being created due to prevalent but unfounded assumptions about the link between military service and crime, the limits of the current court system to address military combat and trauma, and the perception that veterans are a cohesive group of individuals deserving “special consideration for their service and sacrifice” (2019, 4).…”

“…VTCs are not being created simply because of attitudes about what veterans did, but because of ideas about who they are . As Baldwin and Brooke () point out, these are the only courts that are created for individuals with a particular employment history, but not for anything they actually did as an employee. Further, that employment history is not uniform, yet the worth ascribed to it often is.…”

“…These studies predict that veterans in VTCs will have better outcomes than veterans placed in other criminal justice settings, and this prediction drives the proliferation of VTCs (McCormick‐Goodhart ; Russell ; Baldwin and Brooke ). However, data on VTCs suggest that participating in a VTC may not lead to better individual outcomes.…”

Take a Load off Fanny: Peer Mentors in Veterans Treatment Courts

“…“The mission driving the Veterans Treatment Court is to successfully habilitate veterans by diverting them from the traditional criminal justice system and providing them with the tools they need in order to lead a productive and law-abiding lifestyle” (Russell, 2009, p. 364). Although Hakeem (1946) reported that separate courts for World War II veterans were recommended, they did not emerge in the United States for almost 60 years (Baldwin & Brooke, 2019; Easterly, 2017; Russell, 2018). Pioneers in jurisdictions from Alaska to New York established veteran specialty courts by adapting the U.S. Department of Justice drug court recommendations and the key components of mental health courts into the 10 “key components” of the VTC (Baldwin, 2015; Russell, 2009; Smith, 2012).…”

“…Indeed, their regular interactions with participants and their support throughout the treatment process are expected to increase the likelihood that participants will be successful in the program. To date, limited research has focused solely on the role of mentors in VTC (Baldwin & Brooke, 2019; Baldwin, Hartley, & Brooke, 2018; Lucas, 2018). This study aims to fill this gap in the literature by exploring the recruitment, training, and retention of mentors to better understand how the mentors and other workgroup members define the mentors’ role and responsibilities, and how mentors operate in VTCs.…”