Veterans’ Treatment Courts are a relatively new hybrid Drug/Mental Health Court that employ the Specialty Court model to serve veterans struggling with addiction, serious mental illness, and other problems. They promote sobriety, recovery, and stability through a coordinated effort between Drug and Mental Health Courts, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health care networks, the Veterans’ Benefits Administration, volunteer veteran mentors, and veterans’ support organizations.
Currently, there are 13 Veterans’ Treatment Courts in the U.S. and, with further funding from the Veterans Administration, the number of programs should increase substantially in 2010. The National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP) recently launched a Veterans Treatment Court Clearing House in response to the overwhelming interest to create new veterans programs.
- Since 2008, SCRAM has been used in Veterans’ Courts to help manage the epidemic rate of alcohol abuse and addiction among the combat veterans:
- 1.8 million combat veterans meet the criteria for having substance abuse issues (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration)
- 35 percent of justice-involved veterans suffer from alcohol dependency (Bureau of Justice Statistics)
- The rate of veteran involvement in alcohol-related incidents (including DUI, reckless driving and drunk and disorderly conduct) more than tripled between 2005-2006 (U.S. Department of Defense)
SCRAMx supports Veterans’ Courts, with key objectives that include:
- Provides a way to assess the individual’s alcohol dependency and get the veteran the help he/she needs from effective treatment
- Enables continuous enforcement of court-ordered abstinence, while supporting the behavioral changes that facilitate effective treatment
- Provides evidence-based detection and assessment of the veteran’s drinking problem to promote firm − yet fair – sentencing
- Decreases jail overcrowding and taxpayer costs by providing a proven, economical alternative to incarceration
- Lowers operational costs by curtailing law enforcement efforts, judicial case processing, and victimization due to future criminal offenses
- Reduces recidivism and promotes rehabilitation by addressing the root cause of the addiction
- Enhances public safety
How is curfew monitoring used in a Veteran’s Treatment Court model? Find out »
Within Veterans’ Courts, curfew monitoring may be added at the discretion of the supervising authority based on:
- Offender risk levels
- Agency supervision strategies
- Non-compliance while on the SCRAMx device
- Compliance with more restrictive technologies
- Other situations where increased accountability and public safety are valued
