The Deschutes County District Attorney’s Office wants to start a specialty court for veterans that would allow them to receive treatment and avoid jail time, but funding is still unclear.

Nevertheless, prosecutors in the office have already visited a similar program under way in Klamath County, have been selected to participate in a training program in 2014, and say it’s an important priority.

Deputy District Attorney Eric Marvin said the treatment court will do more than simply handle a veteran’s criminal behavior, particularly because a veteran could be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury or other issues.

“We’re not going to stop the behavior unless we address the underlying problems,” he said.

To determine the need for the specialty court, Marvin said his office has begun tracking the veterans entering the criminal justice system and the types of crimes they’re committing, though no numbers are yet available.

High rates of unemployment and suicide among veterans are motivating factors for getting the court up and running, Marvin said, “because there are a lot of good men and women who wouldn’t otherwise be involved in the criminal justice system if not for combat.”

The court’s model, according to a news release, requires regular court appearances, as well as treatment sessions and testing for drugs and alcohol.

If the veterans court is launched, Deschutes County will be the fourth county in Oregon to offer a specialty program for veterans.

In May 2012, Lane County began operating a veterans treatment court, and in October 2012, Marion County established a veterans docket.

Klamath County started a veterans treatment court in November 2010. Steve Tillson, the treatment court’s coordinator, said then-district attorney Ed Caleb was frustrated by the veterans he saw filing through the courtroom. After seeing a television piece on a veterans treatment court, Caleb thought it could work in Klamath.

How it works

Tillson said Klamath’s court was able to implement the program with the help of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, which provided training resources and funded a training seminar in Buffalo, N.Y. One month later, court was in session.

So far in Klamath Falls, 39 veterans have been admitted to the program. Of those, 14 have graduated, three were kicked out when they couldn’t comply with the program, and one died in a car crash. The rest are currently participating.

In Klamath County, about half of the program’s participants fought in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The other half, Tillson said, are split between Vietnam veterans, those who participated in the Gulf War and some who were in the armed forces when there were no active conflicts.

“None of our graduates have repeat-offended,” Tillson said.

The Klamath specialty court considers community safety and treatment options when deciding whether to allow a veteran to enter the program. For example, if the veteran is accused of murder or another Measure 11 crime that has a mandatory minimum prison sentence, that person will likely not be able to participate in the program. And if the treatment needed to help the veteran isn’t available in the community, that will prevent his or her participation, as well. In Klamath County, for example, a veteran who commits a sex offense requires specialized treatment that the county cannot provide.

Tillson described the treatment court as a partnership between the circuit court and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. A treatment team meets before court to look at cases, and for each participating veteran, figures out the best treatment available, which could mean mental health or substance abuse treatment, or a combination thereof. Veterans make weekly court appearances, and each has a mentor who is also a veteran. Tillson described the mentors as similar to Alcoholics Anonymous sponsors.

“They’re kind of almost like a role model to say, ‘You can overcome these traumatic experiences you have, and you can be well and get along fine,’” Tillson said.

Alison Perry, the executive director for Central Oregon Veterans Outreach, worked as a counselor for the veterans affairs office for four years and is the sister of an Army medevac pilot who served three combat tours in Iraq. Perry believes the development of a veterans treatment court is vital to the area.

“People are changed when they come home from war,” Perry said. “We train the military to respond to threat, and the training is so intense, and then when you throw someone … into combat, into a prolonged exposure to threat, you’re only reinforcing how they respond to a threat.”

As a result, veterans return home and respond differently to their environments than before, Perry said, sometimes suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. That is then sometimes coupled with substance abuse.

“When people can’t sleep, they’re constantly anxious … they often self-medicate just so they can sleep and feel calm,” Perry said. “You look at how substance abuse is used to cope and then they’re getting into trouble with DUIIs. That is very common.”

A person suffering from PTSD, Perry said, has a much lower threshold for distress, so their fight or flight response is likely to kick in much faster than an average person’s. And that can result in an arrest for violence.

“The military doesn’t deprogram soldiers or combat veterans,” she said. “You spend months and months training to go to war and kill people. … And then we expect them to endure that stress and come home and be normal.”

If the specialty court works, Perry said, it will mean “veterans are getting treatment instead of punishment.”

“The goal is to help people get the treatment they need and respond appropriately to what’s going on. … They signed up and trained and were sent to war, and we owe it to them to figure out how to cope.”

But the court is a long way from implementation.

No funding yet

Marvin, the Deschutes County deputy DA, said that while funding for the project remains uncertain, his office is applying for grants and funding from nonprofits.

“The (circuit) court is going to have to come up with how much they’re going to need to fund (the specialty program) and if the funds are available,” he said. “But we’re working towards finding funds outside of the typical state funding.”

Deschutes County Circuit Court Presiding Judge Alta Brady said the local circuit court does not currently have the funds to start the program. Based on the county’s population and the area’s caseload, Brady said, the circuit court should have 1.5 more judges, and more staff as well.

“We don’t have enough judicial time to handle everything we have right now,” she said.

Brady said she was approached by the DA’s office in the fall about the veterans treatment court, and the circuit court agreed to participate in a grant application that would pay to explore developing the specialty court.

“We are open to that possibility, but we made it very clear and we continue to make it clear that, at least as of how things exist right now, we do not have the judicial resources, the staff resources or the money to create a new specialty court,” Brady said. “We recognize and respect the service these people give to our country and to us, but we can’t look at it in a vacuum.”

Brady said she hasn’t yet received information from the DA’s office about how many veterans might be involved in the specialty court or how it would be run. And she said she doesn’t yet know whether the circuit court will face future budget cuts.

“We’ll continue to work with the district attorney if there’s some sort of viable program to be created,” Brady said, “but unfortunately, if we’re talking as of today’s date, there is no veterans court being created right now.”

Specialty courts, Brady said, cost more money because they require more oversight of defendants, more staff time and treatment costs. For example, she said, the family drug court currently offered in Deschutes County has a full-time coordinator, and for the first several months, defendants are required to appear in court each Monday.

“If there are further budget cuts, some of our current specialty courts are on the line, and we would be hard pressed to say, ‘We are cutting family drug court or domestic violence court but we’re creating a new court,’” she said. “We’re just in a difficult position from both a time and money standpoint.”